Construction begins on $600 million West Texas wind farm Project in Upton, Crockett counties is Enel Green Power's largest to date

Enel Green Power North America is building its second wind farm in Texas, the High Lonesome project in Upton and Crockett counties. The company operates renewable energy plants in 24 states and two Canadian provinces. less Enel Green Power North America is building its second wind farm in Texas, the High Lonesome project in Upton and Crockett counties. The company operates renewable energy plants in 24 states and two Canadian ... more Photo: Courtesy Photo Photo: Courtesy Photo Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Construction begins on $600 million West Texas wind farm 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

Just south of Midland, straddling Upton and Crockett counties, a massive wind farm is beginning to take shape.

The High Lonesome project will be the largest wind farm in the world for Italian company Enel Green Power. When completed by the end of the year, the 450 megawatt project represents a $600 million investment and, once fully operational, will generate about 1.7 terawatt hours annually.

Asked about locating this wind farm in the heart of not just Texas oil-producing country but American oil-producing country, Chris Hickey, business development director with Enel Green Power North America, said in an email that the oil and gas industry has been accepting of renewable energy.

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"In fact, recent reports confirm that both Exxon and Shell have secured renewable power purchase agreements to power their drilling operations in Texas," he said. "Wind and other renewable energy resources have helped diversify the state's energy supply, helping to increase resiliency and maintain lower energy prices. Building a wind farm of this size can be a challenge, but we are well experienced, having recently built 620 MW worth of wind projects in 2018."

Hickey estimates the project will create more than 400 construction jobs and the community will benefit from property tax revenue.

"As a company, Enel Green Power North America believes in buying locally whenever possible and investing in small businesses in the region where we are constructing and will operate the wind farm."

This is not the company's first foray into West Texas. The company operates the 63 megawatt Snyder wind farm in Scurry County.

Hickey said the company evaluates a number of factors in locating a wind farm.

"Resource availability plays a large role in that decision, as well as market competitiveness. Snyder and High Lonesome offered us both. Enel entered Texas in 2008 with the 63 MW Snyder wind farm, located in Scurry County. At the time this project used the tallest utility-scale wind turbines in the United States," he said in the email. "Since then the Texas wind market has grown significantly and we saw an opportunity to go back to Texas to further diversify our market presence. According to the U.S. Energy Department, in 2017, Texas dominated the nation's wind energy production, adding far more generating capacity than any other state and having more installed wind power capacity than all but five countries in the world. When complete, the High Lonesome project will further solidify our foothold in the region and expand our portfolio in North America. With our commitment to bringing online 1 gigawatt of sustainable energy a year for the next three years, High Lonesome, at 450 MW, will single-handily bring us nearly halfway to our 2019 goal," he said.

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Renewable energy, despite its growing popularity, is not without its challenges. There have been concerns about the reliability of wind and solar power, especially during adverse weather conditions, such as snow or sleet, which can shut down wind turbines.

Hickey said Enel is working to improve reliability.

"We are focused on the digitization of our assets and technologies to create the Operational and Maintenance platform of the future. Through data we collect, we are optimizing the operating costs for power plants and enabling the implementation of predictive maintenance techniques and instruments. We do this by equipping our assets with a continuously increasing number of sensors and control systems that are able to measure real-time signals sent by different devices in order to evaluate their performance. More than 1,200 Enel Green Power plants worldwide daily generate a significant amount of data which must be processed through Big Data analysis, in order to become useful information for maintenance activities."

The High Lonesome project marks not only the largest of its kind globally for Enel, but includes the company's first proxy revenue swap, a risk management tool for renewable energy projects aimed at minimizing price and weather-related risks. Under this agreement, Enel will provide 295 megawatts of power to Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty Inc.'s Alternative Risk Transfer Unit.