Duke Energy Begins Commercial Operations at Ocotillo Wind Farm in Texas

Duke Energy has started commercial operations at its 59MW Ocotillo wind farm, located in Howard County, Texas.

Construction of the 28-turbine site began in February 2008. The clean, renewable electricity produced from the wind farm will be delivered into the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) transmission system and will be sold to Barclays Bank.

Duke Energy has also begun operating a 30MW wind farm near Cheyenne, Wyoming and will bring additional wind turbines into commercial operation later in 2008 at the Notrees site located in the Ector and Winkler counties of Texas.

Wouter Kempen, president of Duke Energy Generation Services, said: “We set a goal of having approximately 500MW of wind energy in service by the end of 2008. We are on schedule to meet that target, as well as our goal of having 5,000MW in our development pipeline by year end.”