Virginia company to build $1.2 billion Panhandle wind farm

Relying on wind for nearly one-third of Texas’ electricity poses serious reliability issues to the power grid. Access to inexpensive wind power is great when the wind is blowing. But often in the late afternoons of July and August, when demand for power is strongest, the wind dies down in West Texas, where most of the turbines are installed. less Relying on wind for nearly one-third of Texas’ electricity poses serious reliability issues to the power grid. Access to inexpensive wind power is great when the wind is blowing. But often in the late ... more Photo: Spencer Platt, Staff / Getty Images Photo: Spencer Platt, Staff / Getty Images Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Virginia company to build $1.2 billion Panhandle wind farm 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A Virginia-based company is going to build a $1.2 billion, 800 megawatt wind farm in the Texas Panhandle.

Apex Clean Energy will build two 400 megawatt wind projects in Moore County north of Amarillo, starting in 2021 with planned completion of the project set to be in late 2021, according to spokeswoman Cat Strumlauf.

The two projects would have 260 turbines.

SUN POWER: Canadian company plans to build largest solar farm in Texas

One megawatt can power 200 Texas homes in the heat of summer.

Moore County is part of the Southwest Power Pool, a subset of the larger Eastern Interconnection grid. That is separate from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas or ERCOT, which covers 90 percent of Texans. The county is part of the Eastern Interconnect grid, which extends north through Oklahoma to the Dakotas all the way to the East Coast.

In ERCOT there are currently around 34,000 megawatts of wind and 28,000 megawatts of solar projects under review or development.