Petersburg's landscape will be dramatically changed in the next 3
to 5 years with a different kind of farm that is in the process of
becoming a reality - a wind farm is coming to town with the name of Cotton
Wind Farms, LLC. The brainchild of Dr. Bill McLaughlin, a former
Petersburg resident who is now the Superintendent of Walcott ISD near
Hereford, Bill contacted several farmers/property owners in the Petersburg
community and formed a board of directors who started working with
Tri-Global Energy company out of Lubbock. A map was drawn out of the
proposed land and one of the next steps was to install a MET Tower on the
site of the proposed land to measure the wind speed, direction, class,
temperature, and barometric pressure for the next two years. The data
gathered from three different points on this 16 meter (196-foot) tower
will be analyzed by a meteorologist over the next two years and a
quarterly report will be published using this information to determine if
a wind farm is really feasible for this area. While this fact gathering
period is going on, lots of research will be conducted in the area from
the EPA studying the effects the wind turbines will have on wildlife in
the area to engineering studies. Part of the engineering studies will
include finding large entities, such as other cities, who would guarantee
purchasing the power from the approximately 160 wind turbines that will go
on the 30,000 acre wind farm as well as figuring out the transmission
lines for carrying the energy off. Each turbine will generate around 250
mega watts of energy per year. To understand how much energy that really
is, you should know that one mega watt of energy supplies 300 American
households with all their energy for an entire year! Doing the math, this
means 160 turbines will supply enough energy for 12 million households!
Incredible when you start thinking of this!
What kind of wind does
it take to have a wind farm? Good West Texas wind! One piece of
information the MET tower will be measuring is the class of wind that
blows through the Petersburg area. The wind is measured and classified
into classes 1 - 5 with Class Five winds being the preferred wind to
"harvest" for energy. Anyone who has driven down past Post, by Fluvanna
and south of Sweetwater have seen these giant wind farms dotting the
landscape. Curt King, the Tri-Global representative I spoke with said that
the winds down around Sweetwater are high 2 to mid 3 -class winds. The
winds that scatter dust in our eyes and blow Walmart shopping bags along
Main Street here in Petersburg are high 3 to low 5 -class winds which will
make Hale County wind farms very efficient and profitable for anyone
involved in the project. The proposed site of Cotton Wind Farms, LLC is
the land running along the north side of highway 54 from Highway 400 up to
CR37.
Petersburg isn't the only local
community considering wind farms. Tri-Global has set up two MET Towers in
the area, gathering data. There is the Petersburg MET Tower, one in SE
Crosby County, and one in the Lakeview area, this side of Interstate 27,
about 3 miles north of highway 54 and 4 miles west of highway 400. Once up
and running these wind farms are going to bring a huge tax base increase
to not only Hale County but Cotton Wind Farm, LLC to Petersburg as well.
Another benefit will be the fact that approximately 20 new jobs will be
created to maintain the machinery and wind farms. If you think this sounds
like an interesting proposition, know that these jobs will have
specialized training involved. WT, Texas Tech and colleges in Amarillo and
Midland all offer degrees in Wind Farm management or Renewable Energy
Management, while community colleges such as South Plains College offer
more vocational type training for positions needed to maintain these
turbines. This is going to be a booming industry in the next couple of
years so anyone interested in getting into the business (2010 senior class
of PHS, are you reading this?) from the ground level up, get into these
classes now so you are positioned to find a job in an extremely lucrative
industry in the years to come.
The managers of Cotton Wind Farm,
LLC are Dr Bill McLaughlin, Tom Gregory, Hoyt Stephens, and Tri-Global.
Because this is a community owned and community run business, there should
be an infusion of money that will be pumped back into the community as
well as the 20 or so new jobs available once the wind farm is up and
running. The future is looking a lot brighter for many economically
depressed farming communities here on the South Plains because of the wind
farms that will be coming into the area. Lots of changes will be happening
and in many instances, change really is a good thing.
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