Texas companies take Texas-sized steps to bring wind power to cities

Wednesday, Mar 18, 2009

Texas companies Oncor Electric and Falcon Steel announced a plan Monday to build 3,800 electric transmission towers out of recycled steel, creating a backbone for the new grid needed to carry wind power from rural West Texas eastward to the urban centers.

The towers, to be made of re-fabricated scrap steel supplied by Nucor Corp. of Charlotte, will stand 120-130 feet tall and support more than 800 miles of power lines.

U.S. Rep. Kay Granger of Fort Worth helped make the announcement, praising the companies for their ambitions and green-minded creativity.

“Oncor, Falcon Steel and Nucor have shown that companies that are willing to innovate can succeed even in this challenging economy,” Granger said at a news conference at Oncor’s Fort Worth headquarters. “This is a homegrown project that will provide good jobs here in Texas. Best of all, everything about the project is designed with environmental concerns in mind. Every transmission tower on this project will represent another step on the way to energy independence.”

Oncor CEO Bob Shapard said that helping build the first “Renewable Energy Super Highway” keeps the company on the forefront of energy development. “Devising a creative, workable way to protect the environment and deliver clean, renewable energy to Texans was the next logical step for us.”

Falcon Steel, based in Haltom City, a suburb of Fort Worth, will build the metal lattice towers from steel milled from auto and industrial scrap. Nucor’s Jewett Texas plant will provide 54,000 tons of steel to Falcon for the five-year project. Fabrication will begin immediately with construction slated to begin later this year.