adapted from the Wind Power Trail website
Wind is one of our nation's greatest natural resources - and is abundant in West Texas!
Wind Power made settlement of the Great Plains possible when pioneers were able to harnass the wind to bring water up from underground aquifers. In recent years, wind has been harnessed to create electrical energy and is powering an increasingly larer percentage of the power grid.
Texas is now the top wind producer in the United States and three of the five largest wind farms in the nation are located in Texas. The Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center remains the largest wind farm in the nation. It is spread across approximately 47,000 acres in Taylor and Nolan Counties near Abilene, Texas. The Horse Hollow facility has a total capacity of 735 MW.
Wind power is now the fastest growing source of electricity generation in the world, unaffected by market prices. And wind is clean because its production does not produce pollution or greenhouse gases.
U.S. wind energy installations currently produce enough daily electricity to power the equivalent of more than 2.9 million homes. One megawatt of wind power produces enough electricity to serve 250 to 300 homes on an average each day. To generate the same amount of electricity using coal or oil would require burning more than 12 million tons of coal or 40 million barrels of oil each year.
Quick Facts:
- Height of tower: approx. 200 feet
- Rotor assembly diameter (sweep of blades): 231 feet
- Total height (tower and blades): 328 feet
- Length of each blade: 112 feet
- Height of nacelle (houses generator): 112,432 lbs. (56.2 tons)
Operates in wind speeds 8-56 MPH
- Automatic blade pitch control keeps machines operating at optimum efficiency
- Weight of rotor assembly: 72,530 lbs. (36.3 tons)
- Weight of entire turbine: 326,654 lbs. (163.3 tons)
- Concrete foundations designed specifically for turbine and soil - some are 14 feet in diameter; 20 feet deep
- Tower in three sections, including base which contains electrical cabinets; access to top is inside tower
See the online video tour of the Trent Mesa Wind Project!