Spanish firm ACCIONA Energía will build its second wind farm in Texas. It is the company’s ninth wind farm in the United States, and it will increase ACCIONA’s U.S. wind power capacity to 866 megawatts. The Palmas Altas project will represent an investment of around $200 million and will have a capacity of 144.9 megawatts and be equipped with 46 wind turbines of Nordex technology. Grid connection is planned for November 2019.
Located in Cameron County, near the San Roman wind farm that ACCIONA started up in December 2016, the new facility will produce around 524 gigawatt-hours of clean energy per year, equivalent to the consumption of 43,000 U.S. households, and offset the emission of 503,000 metric tons of CO2 to the atmosphere from coal-fired power stations.
Over its 25-year lifespan, Palmas Altas is expected to generate $40 million in local tax revenue, as well as more than $44 million in lease payments to local landowners. The energy produced by the wind farm will be sold in the ERCOT–South Texas wholesale market.
ACCIONA Energía currently owns and operates eight wind farms in the United States. In addition to San Roman (93 megawatts), the company has three others in Oklahoma (329 megawatts), two in the Dakotas (192 megawatts), one in Illinois (101 megawatts), and one in Iowa (6 megawatts). It also has a 64-megawatt CSP plant in the Nevada desert.
In addition to Palmas Altas, ACCIONA Energía has other wind power projects in its pipeline that will increase its operational capacity in the United States.
