Lubbock Chamber of Commerce and the Texas Tech Wind Science and Engineering Research Center hosted a luncheon at the Merket Alumni Center on Thursday in which the mayor of Sweetwater and other experts discussed wind energy.
The main presentation during the luncheon was given by Greg Wortham, the mayor of Sweetwater and executive director and founder of the Texas Wind Energy Clearinghouse, the Great Plains Energy Alliance and the West Texas Wind Energy Consortium.
According to Wortham’s presentation, Lubbock is the center of wind in North America because it is located in the middle of more than 50 percent of wind operations. The city links East and West Texas grids, and by 2015 it will be home to a major operations center with the help of Tech, the Reese Technology Center and Ports to Plains.
Randy Jordan, chairman at Lubbock Camber of Commerce, introduced Wortham at the event and showed his support for wind energy in West Texas.
“If we have a resource in this part of the world that we can utilize, it’s wind,” he said.
Besides economic growth, Wortham said, the industry also has brought business opportunities creating regional project benefits, landowner revenue, tax revenue and employment.
“Texas is really where it’s happening,” said Wortham.
Due to the investment in wind energy in West Texas, he said, the industry is starting to get attention from all over the world from companies like GE Wind, Mitsubishi, Sun Eletric and Shermco, which are establishing operations in West Texas.
With such global recognition, he said, Lubbock and West Texas have become home to the Western Hemisphere’s largest and most skilled energy work force.
The goal is to incorporate the industry more into society with work force training as well as incorporating it into the school systems, Wortham said, not just on the university level but also on the grade-school level.
“This provides young people in this part of the world to get a skill in a growing and important industry,” said Robert McComb, associate professor in economics at Tech.
Richard Krupar, a first-year graduate student in wind science and engineering from Elyria, Ohio, also endorsed the importance of wind energy and said the field is “addictive.”
Tech also is the only university in the nation with a Ph.D. program in wind science and engineering.
“Shermco has two offices: one in Brussels, Belgium, and one in Sweetwater,” Wortham said.
Wind plays a bigger role than just forecasting the weather, he said. It is impacting society and is integrated in both civil and mechanical engineering.
By 2020, the industry is estimated to establish 14,000 official jobs in wind energy and become fully integrated in university studies and degrees, according to Wortham’s presentation.
The presentation highlighted advantages the wind energy industry brings to a community’s economy, business opportunities and its expanding growth on the global scale.
From 2003 the wind energy industry has increased total local jobs by nearly 20 percent and the annual payroll is expected to reach $60 million by the end of this year, Wortham said. The total economic impact is more than $400 million per year.
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