Horse Hollow, United States

 

The Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center, spread across a vast area of West Texas, is the largest in the world. Through three stages of development it has reached a total installed capacity of 735 Megawatts (MW), with 421 individual wind turbines. On average, it can supply enough electricity for 180,000 Texan homes.

 

The wind farm has helped boost employment in West Texas, which was in economic decline until the wind industry arrived. In Nolan County, where many of the Horse Hollow turbines are located, the oil wells began to dry up in the 1990s. By 2004, 20% of the population was living in poverty, according to the US Census Bureau.

Wind power has offered a new lease of life to the area. A study by the community-based West Texas Wind Energy Consortium found that over 1,100 of Nolan County's roughly 15,000 residents now have jobs directly related to wind energy. The area has also benefited from fresh tax income as more wind farms have started operation, Nolan County’s property tax base expanded from $500 million in 1999 to $2.4 billion by 2008. The increased tax revenues are being spent on new roads and school renovations.

Overall in the US, around 85,000 people are employed in the wind industry today, a 70% increase from a year ago. They hold jobs in areas as varied as turbine component manufacturing, construction and installation of wind turbines, turbine operations and maintenance and legal and marketing services. Last year alone, 55 new wind industry facilities set up business in the United States.

Last year the US installed a world record capacity of wind power - 8,300 MW. “The US wind energy industry’s performance in 2008 confirms that wind is an economic and job creation dynamo,” says Denise Bode, Chief Executive of the American Wind Energy Association, “ready to deliver on the President’s call to double renewable energy production in three years.”

 

Wind energy has flourished in the United States as a result of both national and state incentives. In Texas, a Renewables Portfolio Standard stipulates that 5,800 MW of the state’s electricity generation capacity must use renewable sources (mainly wind) by 2015.

 

Nationally, a study by the US Department of Energy concludes that 20% of the country’s electricity could come from wind energy by 2030.