The Lone Star Wind Farm brings tremendous economic development to Shackelford County in the form of payments to landowners, temporary construction jobs, well paying permanent jobs, local spending, and large tax revenues. The wind farm provides greater security for Texas by diversifying the electricity generation portfolio (protecting against volatile price spikes), utilizing a domestic source of fuel and using a renewable resource that will help protect against the risks of dwindling fuel supplies.



Project Fact and Figures


Location: Shackelford County

Acreage: 38,175 acres

Construction Completion Dates:
Phase I: December, 2007
Phase II: Lone Star II is currently under commission and in final stages of development.

Project Size: 400 megawatts

Turbines: Two hundred 2.0 MW Gamesa turbines

Co-Developers: RES America Developments, Inc and Horizon Wind Energy LLC

Why Shackelford County?

Texas has long been known as a state of opportunity, and the landowners in Shackelford County partnered with Horizon to execute on that opportunity. On over 38,000 acres used for ranching and oil and gas production, Shackelford County has the perfect mix of a great wind resource, easy access to transmission, a very flexible ERCOT power market, wide-open land, and welcoming landowners. Horizon conducted extensive avian, archaeological, radar, and cultural studies to ensure that our wind farm is a perfect partner for the eight landowners we work with.


Environmental Studies & Permitting

Avian: A Phase 1 Avian Study was performed and concluded that direct impacts to birds are not likely to be significant or result in population impacts. On- site surveys and radar studies were conducted to further assess the impact of the wind farm.

Archaeological: An intensive cultural and archaeological survey of the project site was performed which revealed no new cultural resources or evidence of cultural resources. No diagnostic artifacts or features were observed during the on-site survey. The results of the on-site cultural and archaeological survey were sent to the Texas Historical Commission.

FAA No Hazard to Air Navigation: The FAA issued determinations of no hazard for all turbine locations and the locations of the permanent and temporary met towers that were erected as part of the fully built project.

USACE Water Crossings: TThe United State Army Corps of Engineers authorized the project to construct the twelve US waters crossings involved with the road and electrical collection system portions of the project under Nationwide Permit 14.

Environment:

A 400-megawatt wind farm in Texas would displace annually:

• 1,400,000 pounds of NO_x

• 3,840,000 pounds of SO₂

• 900,000  tons of CO₂

• 34,000 pounds of mercury