Austin blows $558M to Castro County

CASTRO COUNTY, AUSTIN – The City of Austin will purchase energy from Hereford 2, a Castro County wind farm, for up to $558 million over 18 years. Lincoln Renewable Energy LLC currently owns Hereford 2.

The arrangement will supply Austin with all the power from Hereford 2, which will be situated on nearly 15,000 acres about 50 miles southwest of Amarillo. Construction of Hereford 2 began in November 2013.

When completed, the wind farm will have 160 turbines and a capacity of 300 megawatts. The energy will flow into the grid on new transmission lines constructed through the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone program.

Purchasing this amount of wind power will boost Austin toward its goal of having 35 percent of its power come from renewable sources by 2020.

Hereford 1, the 200-megawatt sister project, was sold to EDF Renewables in In July 2013. The operation is located on about 15,000 acres in Deaf Smith County.

Chicago-based Lincoln Renewable Energy LLC partnered with Dallas-based Higher Power Energy LLC to develop both Hereford projects.

Read more at the Amarillo-Globe News.