Dive Brief:
- The Duke Energy Renewables unit has said it will proceed with the development of the 110-megawatt Los Vientos V WindPower Project in Starr County, Texas.
- Duke will sell the power to Garland Power & Light, Greenville Electric Utility System and Bryan Texas Utilities under 25 year power purchase agreements.
- Los Vientos V is expected to go online by the end of 2015 and will have 55 Vestas 2-megawatt turbines.
Dive Insight:
The project would bring Duke Energy's installed wind capacity to 2,100-plus megawatts and place it among the top 10 U.S. wind producers. Los Vientos V follows Willacy County’s 402 megawatt Los ;Vientos I-Los Vientos II Windpower Project, already online, and Starr County’s 400 megawatt Los Vientos III-Los Vientos IV Windpower Project, which began construction last year.
The new wind build comes on the heels of this week’s announcement that American Electric Power Texas is on track to complete the $1 billion South Texas line by 2016, as part of the Rio Grande Valley’s Cross Valley Project, approved by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and the Public Utility Commission of Texas. The new transmission is crucial to delivering the Los Vientos projects’ Gulf Coast winds to the Texas grid.
Duke Energy also owns the 283 megawatt Sweetwater Windpower Project in Nolan County, the 59 megawatt Ocotillo Windpower Project in Howard County, the 153 megawatt Notrees Windpower Project in Ector and Winkler Counties, the 14 megawatt Blue Wing Solar Power Project in San Antonio, and the 36 megawatt Notrees Battery Storage Project in Winkler County.
