Living Green

Get to know your windmill

WACO, Texas — Driving along Highway 84 just north of Roscoe, I see a sign of the times — of a finite resource bumping up against an infinite one.

There, an oil pump sits motionless, looking small and resigned to the sun's scorching.

A few feet away, a towering wind turbine cranks electricity out of nothing except the life force of the planet.

Rest assured, not all of the oil pumps are motionless in the swath north of Interstate 20 that curls along the Caprock and heads up into Texas' High Plains. Most are sweating ingots as they labor for us. But above them and for miles in the distance are the effortless titans of alternative energy, high-tech windmills.

One cannot underestimate what they've come to mean. Recently the Department of Energy estimated that by 2030 wind will produce 20 percent of America's total electricity, on a par with what nuclear power and natural gas supply today.

Texas' history with black gold made it a petroleum "Giant," per George Stevens' epic movie. Texas now stands to have similar stature in wind generation. It's already the nation's leader.

Luminant, the electric generation spinoff of TXU Energy, last year did a lot of deferring to Texas wind farms, purchasing enough energy to meet the needs of 300,000-plus Texans, more than Waco and Abilene combined.

So, what are these long-legged behemoths and how do they work?

Anyone driving along a desolate Texas highway has questions like:

— Why are some whirling and some not? That depends on the wind. If velocities are sufficient — 13 mph is considered a minimum — all should be spinning. But sometimes windmills shut down automatically for maintenance issues such as insufficient lubrication. (You see? We'll always need oil.)

— Can the wind blow too hard? Absolutely. Without controls to automatically apply the brakes, a wind turbine can be damaged with excessive gales.

— What do these suckers cost? A pretty penny, approximately $2 million apiece. Then again, that's not a bad investment if you have the pennies. These turbines will be producing electricity up to 35 percent of the time.

— Is the cost of wind power competitive with other means? Increasingly so, and easily explained by the growing scarcity and volatility of fossil fuels.

"Yes, (wind power is) expensive to put in the ground. But when it's up and running, you don't have any expenses," said Christine Real de Azua of the American Wind Energy Association.

"You can lock in electricity at a stable cost for 20 years or more," she said. "In an unstable environment, that predictability provides a lot of value."

— Who produces and owns them? A few companies have dominated the field and therefore are reaping the prevailing currents. One is Florida Power and Light. Another is the European company E.ON.

Recently, oil giants Shell and BP announced intentions to invest heavily in wind energy.

And well they should. Only so much energy is down below. But what's above is without bounds.