T. Boone Pickens has decided not to persue wind in Texas

Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Tue, Jul 07 2009 | 0 Comments

Last year, especially during heavy political advertising, billionaire T. Boone Pickens advertised on every major network about his plan to eliminate or reduce the United States’ dependence on foreign oil. His plan included installing nearly 700 wind turbines in the Texas panhandle over a space of land that was just over 200,000 acres.

Today the energy tycoon has decided not to go forth with the plan and his $2 billion (plus nearly $60 million in advertising) investment has turned sour.

“When I start receiving those turbines, I’ve got to … like I said, my garage won’t hold them,” Pickens said. “They’ve got to go someplace.”

The issues faced with the building of the wind farm is due to not being able to get the power created by the wind to customers. Pickens said that he hoped to construct a system of his own, but “technical problems” arose from the project.

The “Pickens Plan” was announced a year ago and while he has spent over $60 million on advertising and promotional events for the plan, it appears as though he is one step from giving up the project altogether. He says that some of the turbines will go in the Texas panhandle, but what about the rest of the turbines? I suppose he is just going to continue to look for a buyer for the massive machines?

He wanted to finish the four step project in 2014 and be producing 4,000 megawatts of energy through the system. If it were to go as to plan, that would be enough to power more than a million houses. Over the course of the plan, however, it was expected to cost $12 billion.

When he introduced his plan, because it focused on something that is new and trendy in my opinion, I felt that he was really just jumping on the bandwagon and trying to make a lot of money off it; after all, this man is a “legendary oilman.”

So, even though he says that he wants the turbines to go into a farm somewhere in California and other places around the country, it looks as though the picture at the top of the post is going to be less and less likely to be seen around the Texas panhandle as long as it’s sponsored by Pickens.

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Tags: massive machines, wind turbines, jumping on the bandwagon