Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center

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Horse Hollow Wind energy center is the third largest onshore wind farm in Texas and the sixth largest in the entire United States. The wind power plant is located in Abilene, Texas, and stretches across 47,000 acres or 190 square kilometers of land.

How many phases does the wind farm have?

Horse Hollow Wind project is operational in three phases, which amounts to 735 MW of total capacity.

  • First Phase – 213 MW
  • Second Phase – 299 MW
  • Third and last phase – 223.5 MW

After the third phase got commissioned, the wind boom began in earnest, bringing the industrial scale of wind farms in the US to a new level. Before Horse Hollow Wind energy center, there was no scale wind farm in the state or the US.

In 2007, it was also the largest wind farm in the world in terms of installed capacity. The farm remains in the top 10 largest wind farms in the USA.

According to the FPL energy president (now NextEra Energy Resources), the pro-business environment of Texas allowed them to invest as much as $1 Billion in the lone star state.

Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center was the largest wind farm in the USA when completed in 2006! Horse Hollow is made of 421 wind turbines for a 735 megawatt installed capacity. Horse Hollow wind farm generates 1.9 terawatt hours of electricity a year

How much power does Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center produce?

The 735 MW of the farm has enough capacity to provide electricity, averaging 1.9 terawatt-hours annually.

Horse Hollow Wind energy center is the third largest wind farm in Texas, after Los Vientos and Roscoe Wind.

Who manufactured the turbines?

The project uses 1.5 and 2.3 MW wind turbines to deliver electricity from the farm. The turbines of the project consist of the installation sites:

  • GE 1.5 MW – 291 turbines
  • Siemens 2.3 MW – 130 turbines

The 421 wind turbines spread over nearly 47,000 acres, allowing the farm to harness the vast wind energy resources from the Texas natural wind belt.

When was the first power of the wind farm?

The first power was in 2005 with the first phase. The wind farm was once the largest in the US when it was completed in 2006. Three years later, in 2009, the record total capacity was surpassed by Roscoe Wind Farm in Roscoe city, Nolan county, Texas, by reaching 781.5 MW.

Who owns Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center?

NextEra (formerly FPL Energy) constructed the 421-turbines farm with EPC contractor Blattner energy in 2006.

NEER (NextEra Energy Resources) now operates the farm. Horse Hollow is one of the 172 wind projects owned by its parent company, Next Era Energy, Inc (NEE).

NEER has the largest portfolio of generated electricity from solar and wind farms worldwide with its affiliated companies.

NEE is based out of Florida, a Fortune 200 company, and owns seven nuclear plants in New Hampshire, Florida, and Wisconsin via its affiliate companies.

Florida Power and Light, Co. (FPL) is another subsidiary of NextEra Energy, Inc. FPL, the largest vertically integrated rate-regulated energy company in the United States, has a customer base of 5 million, and serves 12 million households.

Where is Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center?

Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center is in West Texas

Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center is in Taylor and Nolan County.

Were nuisance lawsuits filed against Horse Hollow?

Horse Hollow Wind project was the target of the first nuisance lawsuits in 2005 against a wind farm. The complainants cited the awful turbine aesthetics in their suit.  

Wind turbines cause noise and visual pollution

As the judge ruled under Texas law that aesthetics cannot be the basis of a complaint, the lawsuit focused on the noise made by the farms.

After extensive noise measurements were made, the jury found that the sound created by the farm does not amount to a private nuisance. The jury ruled in favor of the wind farm without penalty or fine.

Expansion Plans

The last Horse Hollow expansion was when the company added 2 1.5 MW turbines via its contractor, Tetra Tech, in 2006.