Tap Into The Energy

07/29/2011 — admin

 

Sweetwater’s location lends itself well to the energy markets as we have had oil and gas leases for many years. The recent surge of wind turbines have fit very well into a market where the landowners understand that their lands can be used for more than just grazing, growing cotton, or drilling for oil.
Sweetwater’s diversified economy took the next step when it embraced the development of wind. In 1999, American Electric Power (AEP) decided to build a wind farm in Nolan and Taylor counties called Trent/Mesa. This 100 MW farm was the first for the Sweetwater region. This was all the region and the industry needed to start expanding on the first park. With the federal government’s Production Tax Credit (PTC) incentive, wind development in the United States took off. By mid 2008, Nolan County had over 1000 people working on wind projects within the county. Sweetwater/ Nolan County became the hot bed of wind development in North America.
Wind:   
  • Sweetwater/Nolan County has 1371 turbines (1MW or larger)
  • Sweetwater/ Nolan County has 2060 MW of developed wind
  • Multi-county region around Sweetwater has 3900 MW of developed wind
  • Multi-county region would surpass all states except Texas
  • Multi-county region is equal to the developed wind in Canada
  • Sweetwater is the hub of the Public Utility Commission’s $5 Billion CREZ transmission line expansion project in Texas.
  • Sweetwater/ Nolan County is home to some of the largest wind farms in the world.
  • Sweetwater/ Nolan County is home to many of the service and supply chain vendors in the wind industry.
Oil & Gas:           
  • Sweetwater/ Nolan County has 825 producing wells
  • Sweetwater/ Nolan County is on the eastern edge of the Permian Basin which produces approximately 18% of our nation’s oil.

Sweetwater continues to explore the expanding renewable energy business. As the CREZ lines get built, more wind development will likely come our way due to the economy of scale. We are also exploring the expansion of the solar industry and how it might fit in this region. With average wind speeds of 8.0 to 8.5 meters per second and an average solar index of 5.5 to 6.0 kwh per square meter per day, our region is a prime location for renewable energy for today and into the future!