Despite Google’s California Investment, Texas Still Wind Leader

Although it wasn’t always this way, Texas is dominant when it comes to wind. In fact, California isn’t even second on that list….it’s Iowa. Russell Smith is the executive director of the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association. He says it’s not really a competition now between Texas and California when it comes to wind.

“California was once the leader in wind back in the late 90’s up to around 2000 or so and after Texas began kicking in, that faded for them. In fact, Texas today is pretty close to triple the amount of wind online that California has, so it is a friendly
competition but the distances between them and us are pretty large.”

Smith says there is $5.5 billion worth of wind transmission projects under construction right now in West Texas.