Texas: more than just oil and politicians

Texas. Oil. Politicians. From LBJ to George W, Texas has brought us oil, war and big military budgets. Well, now there are some subversives sneaking yet another energy business onto the scene down Texas way. Wind!

Course, much of the ooomph is coming from those dread eco-socialists in Europe. Their press release says, "Fortis Merchant Banking today announced it successfully closed syndication of a $280 million senior secured financing for Sherbino I Wind Farm LLC, a joint venture owned by BP Alternative Energy North America Inc. and NRG Energy, Inc."

What that means: they've raised the capital to finish building the windmill farm already under construction in Pecos County, Texas. For those following along on a map, it's about forty miles east of Fort Stockton which, in turn, is a long way from anywhere. The wind farm's a 150 megawatt project that consists of 50 Vestas V90s turbines. Vestas is Danish. BP is British. Fortis is Dutch. Good thing those old-fashioned Euros are being spent in Texas now that our dollar is devalued. Not sure an American energy company could afford to but the Euro-tech needed for a modern wind farm. And I recently blogged about how European countries and companies are pushig ahead with use of wind energy for making electricity.