AMARILLO — Xcel Energy on Tuesday filed to build two new wind energy developments, as well as entering a long-term contract with two existing sites on the South Plains and Eastern New Mexico, adding 1,230 megawatts — enough energy to power 440,000 homes — to its regional system.

The new investment in wind energy comes at a cost of $1.6 billion.

The company plans to build the Sagamore Wind Project in Roosevelt County, New Mexico, by 2020 and the Hale Wind Project in Hale County, south of Plainview, by 2019. Two prospective wind fields in Cochran County and Crosby County near Lubbock, owned by NextEra Energy Resources and known collectively as Bonita Wind Project, will generate an additional 230 megawatts from 2019 to 2049.

Thanks to what seems like a never-ending supply of wind blowing across the plains, federal tax credits and reduced construction costs for turbines, Xcel is expecting to save $2.8 billion on electricity costs after paying back the $1.6 billion investment, Regional President David Hudson said.

"We are getting this wind energy on an aggregate basis so inexpensively that it’s going to be comparable to coal fuel costs," Hudson said. "That’s how inexpensive this is."

The Hale Wind Project (105,000 acres) and Sagamore Wind Project (180,000 acres) will mark the first Xcel-owned turbine farms in the company’s Southwest Region, which includes Texas and New Mexico.

NextEra Energy Resources’ development wing is laying groundwork to build the 478-megawatt Hale Wind Project for $769 million. The developers are also scheduled to complete Xcel’s 600-megawatt Rush Creek Wind Project near Boulder, Colorado, by the end of next year.

Wind comprised 19 percent (nearly 1,600 megawatts) of all energy produced in Xcel’s Southwest Region, according to a 2015 report. Hudson said he expects nearly 40 percent of company energy to be wind-generated by 2021, when Sagamore, Hale and Bonita are all online.

Xcel’s tentative acquisition of the Hale Wind Project was welcome news to business leaders in Hale County, said Linda Morris, executive director of the Plainview Chamber of Commerce.

"We like the fact that we’re going to have some local representation in that ownership," she said. "Xcel Energy has been a really good partner with our organization over the years."

Morris added that her organization was thankful for NextEra Energy for spearheading the Hale Wind Project, but looks forward to Xcel’s involvement in the project.

"I just think, when you bring some local ownership, you have the potential for a larger number of increases in jobs or resources that would be available," she said.

Morris said she’s hopeful the recent boom in wind energy in the region and Xcel’s investment is a good indicator of future growth and development.

"We think wind energy is a long-term supply for us because it’s not something we’re ever going to run out of," she said.

Xcel has purchased 500 Vestas 130-foot turbines at an undisclosed price. Vestas already supplies energy providers in Minnesota, Colorado, North Dakota and South Dakota.

"They’re to the point now where they really can’t get much bigger because they can’t transport them," Hudson said. "The blades are too long."

Most of Xcel’s regional wind turbines are located in the northern Panhandle, where winds are slightly stronger than across the South Plains. Sagamore will be the largest wind farm in New Mexico, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

Xcel loaded up on wind turbines in 2016, knowing it needed to roll out a plan to implement at least 5 percent before the end of the year to fully receive IRS production tax credits for renewable energy. The Omnibus Appropriations Act, which began dropping production tax credits by 20 percent annually for projects beginning this year, also mandates projects begun in 2016 must be complete by 2020 — when the act expires — to receive full credits.

The tax credits alone are expected to save Xcel $1.27 billion, Hudson said. Customers will likely see increases in their bills beginning in 2019, Customer and Community Relations Director Brooke Trammell said. Those bumps are expected to more than offset fuel costs, and Trammell said typical residential bills should decrease 2 percent — $2.31 — during the wind farms’ first year online.

Landowners in Hale County had been trying to draw a wind farm since 2009, Trammell said. Sagamore and Hale are expected to need 300 construction workers apiece, some of whom will be part time.

"They’ve been working on it for a long time, so the partnership here should be very well-received by those landowners and the community that’s looking for the construction jobs and the tax base, the landowner payments and the indirect economic spending that we’ll see in the region from the development of these projects," Trammell said.

Coal-fed power plants accounted for 44 percent of Xcel’s power in 2015. But two-thirds of Harrington Generating Station could shut down due to a proposed EPA regulation, and Tolk Generating Station uses groundwater from the shriveling Ogallala Aquifer. Hudson said reinforcements for the two slightly tenuous plants were a secondary priority, taking a back seat to raw savings.