Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center

Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center is a large wind farm with 735.5 megawatt (MW) capacity. It consists of 291 GE 1.5 MW wind turbines and 130 Siemens 2.3 MW wind turbines spread over nearly 47,000 acres (19,000 ha) of land in Taylor and Nolan County, Texas.

The Horse Hollow Wind project was constructed in three phases by Blattner Energy. In 2005 project developer NextEra Energy and EPC contractor Blattner Energy constructed and commissioned the first 142 GE 1.5 turbines. Phase two added 130 Siemens 2.3 MW turbines in the second quarter of 2006. Soon after, phase three was commissioned bringing an additional 149 GE 1.5’s into the mix by the end of 2006. Finally, before the year was out NextEra worked with contractor Tetra-Tech to install 2 more GE 1.5 MW turbines in the phase referred to as “Horse Hollow Expansion”.

The Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center was subject to one of the nation's first nuisance lawsuits against a wind farm. Plaintiffs in the area of the wind farm, many of whom live on 100-700 acre properties, originally filed suit in June 2005, as they disliked the appearance of the turbines. Soon after, the judge ruled that under Texas law, they could not complain about the look of the wind farm. The complaints then shifted to the sound created by the turbines, and extensive noise measurements were made. The jury found that the wind farm did not create a "private nuisance", as was charged, and they made no award to the plaintiffs.

NextEra Energy Resources (through its subsidiaries) owns and operates Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center and 46 other wind farms throughout the United States, with an installed capacity of 4,002 MW. This is enough capacity to provide electricity for nearly one million average U.S. homes.

Famous quotes containing the words horse, hollow, wind, energy and/or center:

    By the “mud-sill” theory it is assumed that labor and education are incompatible; and any practical combination of them impossible. According to that theory, a blind horse upon a tread-mill, is a perfect illustration of what a laborer should be—all the better for being blind, that he could not tread out of place, or kick understandingly.... Free labor insists on universal education.
    Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)

    I don’t give a hoot in a hollow if there’s oranges and grapes a-crowdin’ us out of bed, I ain’t goin’ to California! This is my country and I belong here. This is my dirt. It’s no good, but it’s mine.
    Nunnally Johnson (1897–1977)

    The wind blew all my wedding-day,
    And my wedding-night was the night of the high wind....
    Philip Larkin (1922–1986)

    The tendencies of the times favor the idea of self-government, and leave the individual, for all code, to the rewards and penalties of his own constitution, which work with more energy than we believe, whilst we depend on artificial restraints.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    It is written in the Book of Usable Minutes
    That all things have their center in their dying....
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)