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August 2008 |
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 It is that time of year again as high school football kickoffs across Texas today. The Sweetwater Mustangs will open the season at 7:30 p.m. today against Burkburnett in the Times Record News Kickoff Classic in Wichita Falls. The Mustangs will begin their home schedule Friday, Sept. 5, when Seminole visits for the fourth annual TSTC West Texas Sammy Baugh Classic. |
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Study shows wind energy is windfall for the county |
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Written by Thomas Watson
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Saturday, 12 July 2008 |
Nolan County is seeing an economic windfall, according to results recently released from a field study that focused on the impact of wind energy companies throughout the area. Mayor Greg Wortham announced the results and said more than 1,100 workers are currently employed in the wind energy field in Nolan County, with a direct payroll in excess of $45 million.
After applying a seven-fold multiplier principle, which estimates that each dollar is circulated at least seven times in the local economy, the impact of those jobs is worth over $315 million to the area.
With continuing growth in 2009, employers estimate that there will be over 1,300 direct wind energy jobs, with a direct payroll of at least $56.6 million. After applying the multiplier principle, those jobs equate to nearly $400 million by the end of 2009.
“We’re really trying to get the word out about how big this industry is, and a lot of us in the region are so busy with it, we haven’t had time to count,” Wortham told the large number of attendees at the West Texas Wind Energy Trade Fair held in the Trent School building on Thursday. The attendees included wind energy, city and county leaders from Sweetwater and surrounding areas.
“These payroll totals are actually conservative, taking a mid-range wage level estimated by each employer, and also assuming a straight 40-hour work week- despite actual overtime pay throughout the industry,” Wortham said. The totals also do not count per diem payments that can and regularly exceed $100 per day, translating roughly to $3,000 per month, and $36,000 per year for each employee. The payroll totals in the study also do not estimate the monetary implications of any workplace benefit packages received by the wind energy workers.
The local study was conducted over the last several months by New Amsterdam Wind Source LLC, along with Wortham, who is also the executive director of the West Texas Wind Energy Consortium (WTWEC), and a group of WTWEC interns — Lauren Moore, Alanna Lay, Alyssa Black, Kirsten Elliott, Allison Burt, Linsey Turner, Kelci Owens, Morgan Shelton and Brianne Wilburn — all of whom are current or former high school students from Sweet-water, Roscoe and Highland.
“So as the legislature continues to prepare for action in 2009, the Congress continues review things such as the production tax credit, the Bush administration looks at ex-panding wind energy across the United States, and imminently the Public Utility Commission in Austin will decide about transmission,” Wortham said, “as all of these things are occurring, it’s important for all of us in our decision making to have the most accurate information about what is going on.
“We decided to study Nolan County and use it as an example for the rest of the state and the nation. In smaller areas such as Sweetwater and Roscoe, it is much easier to see, visually, the impact that these wind energy companies have had on the area.”
The studies focused on statewide industrial impacts and a specific case study of Nolan County, the center of the most active wind energy operations in the world. Nolan County is expected to be home to roughly 3,000 megawatts (MW) of wind energy by the end of 2008 and has already surpassed California’s total wind energy capacity.
State Rep. Susan King was also in attendance at the event. “To look at what’s going on with wind energy, its not just jobs and economic devlopment, and energy profiling,” she said. “It’s also education, so I think its great this group of interns and others are learning about the science of wind energy and its benefits.”
“So we’re actually adding to a new component of education as we speak,” Kind said. “And for Nolan County to be at the forefront of this movement is a great thing.”
The counties of West Texas containing wind energy are considered as a group to be the world’s sixth largest “nation” for their operations. Wind energy centers are also under development in certain areas of South Texas as well. The Public Utility Commission (PUC) is projecting the state to reach 10,000 MW by year-end 2008.
Wortham also discussed the benefits of the wind energy companies as they relate to school and property taxes.
In 1999, Nolan County had a total property tax base of roughly $500 million. Prelim-inary estimates from the Nolan County Central Appraisal Dis-trict project the 2008 total taxable value for Nolan County to be in excess of $2.4 billion, an almost five-fold increase in total taxable value in the county in less than a 10 year period and a 50 percent increase in just one year; the 2007 total taxable value of Nolan County was roughly $1.6 billion
Cumulative wind energy project property taxes paid in Nolan County from 2002-2007 are over $30 million, with nearly $2 million dollars alone in 2007. School district property taxes paid by the projects in 2007 were over $12 million, with cumulative taxes from 2002-2007 over $22 million.
Other school districts in the wind region are not yet reflected in wind energy property tax receipts. For example, Roscoe ISD is now the primary home to the 1 GW complex of wind energy projects developed by Airtricity and E.on, but to date, Roscoe ISD has received no wind energy property tax income, as none of the Airtricity/E.on projects in Nolan County have yet to come on to tax rolls because of the lag between project operation and setting of tax rolls. The E.on projects near Roscoe also fall into other school districts, including Highland, Colorado City, Loraine and others.
Almost $25 million in school improvements have been built or are under construction due to the economic benefits of Nolan County wind projects, between the years 2004-2010, including Blackwell, Highland and Trent ISD. While Trent ISD is officially located within Taylor County, part of the school district does include Nolan County (and 99 of the 100 turbines of the Trent Mesa Wind Farm are located in Nolan County). Blackwell CISD is a combination of the Black-well and Divide school districts. At Blackwell’s current school, the “new” gym dates to 1940, with the main core of the school complex having been built in 1923. Blackwell CISD is now in active construction of its new $11.5 million school complex, made possible in large part by the arrival of the wind energy industry. Blackwell CISD is home to all or parts of several major wind energy projects, including Babcock and Brown’s Sweetwater center, the FPL Energy’s Horse Hollow project, and AES Wind Generation’s Buffalo Gap.
Highland ISD starts construction in August 2008 on its new $8 million campus. High-land’s school district boundaries include Babcock and Brown’s Sweetwater center and E.on’s Champion wind project. The new Highland campus will provide better facilities for its student population as they continue to grow.
Lay, who currently attends Angelo State University, said she had really learned a lot about wind energy and business in Sweetwater and the surrounding areas.
“It’s been very fun, but very busy,” she said.
“I think I’ve gained a lot of knowledge about business relations and hard work. I’ve really enjoyed it and I’ve been happy to work with the other young ladies and learn what we learned. I really hope this study contributes to people’s awareness of the benefits of wind energy.”
A second press conference will be held at the Texas Capitol in Austin on Monday, July 14 and will release the statewide economic impacts and local region impacts to legislators and state media.
The PUC will determine during that week, the pace of development in the Texas Panhandle, the South Plains, and along the Interstate 20 and Interstate 10 corridors of West Texas. They will rule on the scope of immediate expansions of the state’s electricity transmission grid as part of the ongoing Competitive Renewable Energy Zone, or CREZ, process. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 14 July 2008 )
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