Pickens halves GE turbine order as Texas project falters

[wpsedgwick]

Source: Green Technology Daily

Energy investor T. Boone Pickens says he has halved his huge order for 1.5 megawatt wind turbines from General Electric from 667 to 333, and will now try to place some of them in projects in Canada and Minnesota, not the Texas Panhandle as originally planned.

In May 2008, the veteran oilman-turned-clean-power-advocate announced that his company, Mesa Power, would place the turbine order worth about $2bn with GE. At the time, it was believed to be among the largest ever such deals. Delivery of the remaining turbines will begin in 2011.



Read more: http://www.greentechnologydaily.com/investments/604-pickens-halves-ge-turbine-order-as-texas-project-falters

[MilesColtrane]

1. The price of natural gas dropped so he changed his mind.

The only green T. Boone is interested in is money.

[joshcryer]

3. He used wind to bring the price down.

[TxRider]

4. ROFL

The electric grid still isn't finished being built to the panhandle so putting up turbines with no lines to hook them up to wouldn't do much good now would it?

He hasn't changed his mind, he still wants to build the panhandle wind farm when the grid is built out to it, which the state of Texas owns and is working on.

The price of natural gas dropping doesn't help, Texas gets half it power with NG, but he's still putting a billion dollars into wind turbines now, in a recession. And finding other places he can build them until Texas gets the grid built out.

The guy is 81 years old, I think he's more interested in leaving a good legacy than making money, he'll probably be dead in a decade and he's already a billionaire.

He's the only billionaire putting his amoney where his mouth is and working on alternative energy I'm aware of.

[joshcryer]

5. Is he paying for any transmission infrastructure?

[TxRider]

6. If he builds the farm.

He would be responsible for the gathering system of lines and getting the power to the grid backbone.

He also announced plans to build his own transmission lines, but that hasn't worked out for him.

That backbone is state owned by the electric reliability council of Texas, Approved and built through the Public utilities commission, Texas consumers will pay the cost passed through into our utility bills.



Here's some insight into the debate we've been seeing here the last couple of years.

This was 2008...

" "There's really not enough transmission to West Texas to carry 9,000 megawatts," said ERCOT's vice president of system operations, Kent Saathoff. "So we're going to have to curtail wind, you know, probably significantly below 9,000 megawatts" until transmission lines can be built.

The Public Utility Commission is in the process of designating new transmission lines between West Texas and North Texas, South Texas, and possibly Houston. Commissioners later this month will choose among four scenarios costing between $3 billion and $6.4 billion. Those costs would be passed along to consumers. "

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/DN-wind_06bus.ART0.State.Edition1.4e033eb.html

---------------------------------------------

a plan was chosen and approved...

" Texas cemented its role as the nation's top wind power producer Thursday when the Public Utility Commission authorized nearly $5 billion of new transmission lines.

The commission told its staff to create the order picking the middle scenario out of five to harness the wind. A lattice of wires will connect West Texas' and the Panhandle's fast-growing wind farms to power-hungry cities to the east and southeast. Texas already generates nearly 7,000 megawatts of wind, the most of any state, and the new lines will boost that by 18,456 megawatts. "

Pickens didn't get the route he wanted, and decided to try to build his own transmission lines.

"Mr. Pickens is one of the largest wind farm investors and owners and is building his own transmission lines to bring 1,000 megawatts of wind power to market in 2011, two years earlier than when Texas' new lines should be completed, Mr. Rosser said."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/greenliving/stories/071808dnbuspucwindpower.645616e5.html


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When that didn't work out he changed his plans last summer...

" "I don't think the first place we build, though, is where we thought we would because we don't have the transmission," he said.

Remember that idea he had to build his own transmission line? "It was a little more complicated than we thought," he said. "

" He couldn't easily line up a transmission line.

The Public Utility Commission created a plan to build $5 billion in transmission lines to bring wind power from several areas of West Texas to North Texas and the Houston area. The lines will reach as far as the Panhandle but won't follow a path that Mesa had suggested for the Pampa project.

Still, Pickens already ordered the initial round of wind turbines.

GE will start delivering them in the first quarter of 2011. Pickens has about 18 months to find a place to put them. "

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/industries/energy/stories/DN-pickenswind_05bus.State.Edition1.19e1daf.html

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And more recently, about actual siting of the new transmission lines...

Personally I don't have a problem with an extra 20m to go around Palo duro Canyon,

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/122009dnbuspaloduro.3cfbc42.html


The OP is not new news, and people tend to ignore what the article says about grid infrastructure and start tossing around ulterior motives pretty quickly.

So it'll be a while yet before we have the grid reaching out into the panhandle area for wind power there, and it's not heading for the area Pickens wanted it to for his giant wind farm, so he's building wherever he can.

[TxRider]

7. And the money he is interested in

Is the huge amount of money we pay the middle east for oil.

He wants to cut off all the purchase of oil we get from them, and keep that money here. End the security and supply issues we face from our dependency on their oil and end the massive transfer of our wealth to the middle east.

Personally I would rather pay him for wind power and natural gas than pay Saudi Arabia for dirty oil.

Some people are just blind to reality.

As if any solar panel I put on my roof doesn't make someone a profit, or any electric or hybrid car I buy doesn't make someone a profit.

Get a clue, no matter what we do for energy, green or not, clean or not, someone is going to make a big profit selling it to us. Who would you rather it be, Iran, Iraq ans Saudi, or American wind and NG companies and their investors?

[Ian David]

2. Swiftboat Scammers for Wind. Fuck 'im. n/t

[arachadillo]

8. Wind Power Industry Takes a Breath

http://greennature.com/article1494.html">Wind Power Industry Takes a Breath

"rather than being sold on the open market in Texas, wind power companies often have to pay utilities to take their wind power. The wind energy companies recoup those losses with taxpayer subsidies, which translates into American taxpayers paying Texas electricity consumers to waste electricity."

[kristopher]

9. Well, if you support the continuation of a fossil fuel economy you might see it like that.

Wind subsidies are there specifically to benefit their recipients (in this case wind developers) so that they can compete in a system designed around centralized, thermal (in this case read "fossil fuel") electricity generation. Eventually, when enough wind is online, there will be a different business model that determines how the grid prioritizes and prices power. It will be more stable and, in both the mid and long term, it will be far less expensive for the country as a whole.

So if the wind power producers are using it to stay in business during a period of economic downturn, well, that is exactly what it is there for.

[madokie]

10. Some just can't seem to grasp that

We're not going to get off fossil fuels overnight unless we unplug the whole country and I don't see that happening. I was reading that Californians have added the equivalent of two average coal plants of capacity of solar panels on their roofs. If each of us would, those who can that is. Some people have no option and thats fine too but many of us do all we need is the price to come down a little bit more. Its never a big step that gets you where you're going it's always a series of small steps that get you there.

[kristopher]

11. Well said.

The roof on my home isn't oriented optimally for solar, so when I added a garage/workshop I chose to make it a detached building with perfect exposure/slope for solar. When the prices are ready, so am I.

You wrote: "Its never a big step that gets you where you're going it's always a series of small steps that get you there."

Another person phrased it this way: "The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one's feet." - Lao Tzu

You always have to start from where you are...