U.S. Wind Power Grows Up?

By KELLEY SHANNON, Associated Press

Texas has sold a lease for an 11,000-acre tract in the Gulf of Mexico that backers believe could become the first wind energy farm along the U.S. coast, state officials announced Monday.

The wind turbines planned by Galveston Offshore Wind, a subsidiary of Wind Energy Systems Technologies of New Iberia, La., would be seven miles off Galveston Island. "The economics work, and they work well, and we're excited about it," Patterson said. "The environmental impacts are very positive."

Construction is expected to be completed within five years at a cost of about $300 million. W.E.S.T. plans to construct about 50 wind turbines, expected to produce 150 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 40,000 homes.