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The Dallas Morning News writes more about the rapidly growing wind power industry in Texas, which has surpassed California to become the number one wind energy producing state in the United States. Texas is looking to Denmark, another big producer and consumer of wind energy, for lessons on how to do wind energy the right way.
Denmark has become a world leader in wind power, generating nearly 25 percent of the country’s electricity needs, while Texas has vaulted past California to become the top wind energy state, with nearly a quarter of U.S. generating capacity.”In so many ways, we are modeling our wind energy industry on Denmark’s wind energy industry,” said Michelle Warren, the deputy commissioner overseeing renewable energy at the Texas General Land Office in Austin.
Like Denmark, Texas also offers government incentives such as direct grants for wind developers.
“We do follow the policy incentives in Denmark, where there’s a belief that the government does have to offer incentives to the wind energy industry,” Ms. Warren said.
Perhaps most important, Texas is studying how Denmark has developed its offshore wind energy industry as it pursues what Ms. Warren calls its goal “to be the first state to have offshore wind development.”
