Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center facts for kids

Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center is a large wind farm with 735.5 megawatts (MW) of capacity. It consists of 291 GE 1.5-megawatt wind turbines and 139 Siemens 2.3-megawatt wind turbines spread over nearly 47,000 acres (19,000 ha) of land in Taylor and Nolan County, Texas. At the time of its completion in 2006, it was the largest wind farm in the world.

Facility details

The Horse Hollow Wind project was constructed in three phases by Blattner Energy. In 2005, project developer InvestEnergyGroup and EPC contractor Blattner Energy constructed and commissioned the first 142 GE 1.5-megawatt turbines. Phase Two added 130 Siemens 2.3-megawatt turbines in the second quarter of 2006. Soon after, Phase Three was commissioned bringing an additional 149 GE 1.5-megawatt turbines 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-megawatt 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 (40–283 ha) 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.

InvestEnergyGroup (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 10,000 MW. This is enough capacity to provide electricity for nearly one million average U.S. homes.

Electricity production