Mesteño Windpower Project : Duke Energy commissions 200MW Texan wind farm

Duke Energy’s commercial business unit Duke Energy Renewables has started commercial operations of the 200MW Mesteño Windpower project in Starr County, Texas.

The Mesteño wind farm is the fourth wind generation facility of Duke Energy in Starr County and its eleventh in Texas.

The output from the Mesteño Windpower project will be sold into the ERCOT market. Duke Energy Renewables said that it has forged a long-term hedge agreement according to which the majority of the expected wind energy production is covered.

Rob Caldwell – president of Duke Energy Renewables said: “We’re excited to bring another wind project online in Texas and plan to continue investing in renewable energy in the state. This project will deliver clean energy and significant economic benefits.”

Vestas supplied the 56 turbines for the wind farm in Starr County, with each of them having a capacity of 3.6MW. Put together, the turbines will be able to power nearly 60,000 average homes.

The turbines for the Mesteño wind farm with a length of 590.5 feet are claimed by Duke Energy to be among the tallest wind turbines in the US. The company said that the tall tower turbines are designed to harness stronger winds and thus an increase in wind energy production.

Chris Brown – president of Vestas sales and service division in the US and Canada said: “We’re pleased to expand our tall tower technology and V136-3.6 MW platform. The combination of taller towers and V136-3.6 MW technology is perfectly designed to extract the abundant resource at the site, and deliver low-cost, reliable energy to the community and customer.”

The Mesteño Windpower project generated nearly 200 jobs during the construction phase.

Amshore US Wind gave development support for the Texan wind farm, while Wanzek Construction was the contractor.