Wind farm might be operational this year

Donley County’s first wind farm could be online by the end of this year following the announcement of an agreement to develop an area along FM 2471.

Nacel Energy Corporation has entered into the agreement with members of the Naylor family on 636 acres to develop what it is calling Hedley Pointe.

“We started researching wind energy about a year ago,” said family spokesman Blake Frye. “I was working with oil companies and seeing workers getting laid off and thought wind was going to be the next big thing.”

Frye said he approached Nacel, and they were interested in the Donley County property. The company erected a meteorological tower in December to measure winds.

A call to Nacel was not returned before press time, but a press release from the company said it anticipates 10 megawatts (MW), or more, of power generating capacity from Hedley Pointe.

“The winds are blowing about twice what they need here,” Frye said. “They also said this is a strategic spot because it allows them to connect to either ERCOT or SPP to sell the power.”

According to Nacel, SPP provides power to Kansas and portions of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. ERCOT provides power to 21 million customers covering 75 percent of Texas.

Frye said he has been doing contract work with Nacel and helped them and former Clarendon Alderman Michael Tibbets begin another project in Swisher County. Nacel has asked Frye to help them incerase the size of the Donley County project.

“I’m looking for two more sections on FM 2471 to expand this project to 20 turbines,” Frye said.

But that’s not slowing down development of Hedley Pointe, Frye said, noting that the company is proceeding with getting permits and hopes to have construction begun and completed by the end of this year or in early 2010.

Hedley Pointe is Nacel’s fourth location in the Texas Panhandle, CEO Brian Lavery said in the release. In addition to the 1,573-acre project in Swisher County, the company has two other projects in Moore County.
“We anticipate generating a total of 80 MW of clean, renewable power upon build-out of our four Texas Panhandle projects – enough energy to meet the daily requirements of an estimated 24,000 average American homes,” Lavery said.