Babcock & Brown starts 80 MW Texas wind farm

Sydney, Australia-based investor Babcock & Brown (ASX:BNB) said it has started construction and secured financing for a 79.5 megawatt wind farm in the Texas Panhandle.

B&B's Majestic Wind Farm is part of a larger, $1 billion company effort to build 567.5 MW of wind power in Texas, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The newest wind farm near Amarillo, Texas, is expected to be fully operational by the end of the year and feeding into the Southwest Power Pool.

Texas has aggressively courted wind developers for the Panhandle region, which is expected to have 4,200 MW of wind power by late 2010 (see New Texas loop to connect renewables to grid). B&B has said it plans to construct at least 1,000 MW of wind power in the project dubbed the Panhandle Loop.

The wind power objective is part of a larger, 8,000 MW plan, consisting of renewables, natural gas and coal-fired power plants. It will supply 1 million homes in the Panhandle Loop, according to Texas officials. Airtricity, Celanese, Occidental Energy Ventures and Sharyland Utilities have also said they'll participate.

B&B has 20 wind farms across nine states, totaling nearly 1,600 MW of installed capacity, which the company says makes it one of the top five wind developers in the U.S.

In August, B&B sold its Spanish wind farm assets, unloading 17 percent of its portfolio for profit of $234 million, the company said (see Spain's FCC inks $1.2 billion wind investment).

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