exas led all states in the amount of new windpower installed during the first six months of 2009 with 454 MW, reports the American Wind Energy Association. And, despite the shelving this summer of T. Boone Pickens' planned 667-turbine wind farm, the wind economy has plenty of steam in Texas, whether it is new wind equipment facilities or robust traffic at the state's ports. Texas ranks second in both clean energy jobs and businesses, according to a recent study by Pew Charitable Trusts, and a major factor has been wind energy.
      Abilene can aptly be described as the capital of Texas's vast wind region. The world's largest wind farm, Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center, with 421 turbines, is nearby. Broadwind Energy, a Naperville, Ill.-based supplier to the wind sector, believes Abilene is the state's wind nexus, and has sited two major facilities during the past 18 months. Broadwind's Tower Tech Systems subsidiary began building wind towers at its new 146,000-sq.-ft. (13,560-sq.-m.) production facility in Abilene in February 2009. That followed the opening of an Energy Maintenance Services operations center in April 2008. EMS, a wind energy operations services and maintenance provider, is also a Broadwind subsidiary.
      "Texas is one of the hotbeds for wind in the U.S. and has quite a large base of installed wind towers already," says Jess Collins, group president at Broadwind Energy with responsibility over the company's Tower Tech subsidiary. "Texas has quite a large base of installed wind towers already and has the best infrastructure for transmission. Abilene is in the heart of Texas, and some of the big areas of wind tower installation are out in small, rural areas that are very easily accessed from the Abilene area."
      Collins says the Tower Tech facility is the first of its kind to be built from scratch; most tower manufacturing plants have been retrofitted from other purposes. It also has room for expansion, should business warrant it.
      "It's a very large building with tall ceilings and is laid out in one straight shot," Collins says. "You don't find that too often."
      Collins says the Abilene region has provided a good work force for the plant, which employs about 120. Tower Tech joins at least six other companies that are manufacturing towers or tower components in Texas.
      The EMS facility, located a short distance from Tower Tech, is a leased building which previously housed a Lockheed Martin plant. The facility features cranes and production test benches that allow EMS to provide complete repair and retrofitting of turbines and remanufacturing of other major components.
      EMS, which claims to be the largest wind energy equipment service center and blade repair plant in North America, has 300,000 sq. ft. (27,870 sq. m.) of work space under one roof and more than five acres (two hectares) outside for storage of nacelles, blades and other wind turbine components.
      Collins says Texas is definitely wind-energy friendly, especially when it comes to moving large wind turbines and towers.
      "Texas is one of the easier states to deal with. It's pro-wind, pro-alternative energy and there are fewer challenges moving large equipment here than in other states farther north. Some of those states are impossible to get through. Texas is a great state in which to do business. It's very much aligned to industry. There's no state income tax and it has great transmission capabilities. It also has the largest installed base of wind towers."
      Transportation is a key issue in the wind equipment business. Broadwind has another niche subsidiary, Badger Transport, which specializes in moving the huge towers, nacelles and blades on the highways of the nation's wind corridor.
      "We do quite a bit of hauling in Texas because there is such a big installed wind base," Collins says.
      Most of the challenges facing the wind sector are related to the economic downturn, Collins says.
      "Financing for wind farms is really hard to come by these days. Many projects slated for this year got pushed to 2010 or cancelled. It's an industry-wide thing and has nothing to do with Texas, which on a percentage basis has more going on than the rest of the country."
      Another wind sector service company also opened in Abilene this year. Houston-based Turner Brothers LLC opened its 43-acre (17.4-hectare) Abilene Wind Service Center. Turner Brothers specializes in turbine construction and maintenance.       Several of Texas' Gulf Coast ports have reaped benefits from the ongoing movement of wind equipment into the state. The Port of Corpus Christi is currently serving the most wind sector manufacturers, with Siemens, Vestas, GE, Clipper, CS Wind and Gamesa offloading their heavy cargo. The equipment primarily comes from Europe and is mostly bound for West Texas wind farms, says John Valls, general cargo manager. In 2008, 114,634 short tons of wind equipment moved through the port, he says.
      "The pace this year is a little ahead of last year," Valls says. "There has been no slowing down despite the economy. A lot of wind farm projects are already in the development process. Just when you think it's going to slow down, boom, another project pops up. We got into this about three years ago and the growth has been steady."
      Valls says the port has steadily expanded its space dedicated to wind equipment and has grown seven-fold to about 100 acres (41 hectares) over the last three years. The ports of Beaumont, Freeport, Galveston and Houston also have considerable wind equipment business.       There's no shortage of traditional oil and gas projects across Texas. One is Baker Hughes' Center for Technology Innovation (CTI). Baker Hughes, a provider of consulting services and products to the oil and gas sector, has developed the 209,000-sq.-ft. (19,400-sq.-m.) CTI on a 14-acre (5.7-hectare) campus in northwest Houston. The $42-million facility, built in two phases, is home to about 600 scientists, engineers and laboratory technicians.
      Baker Hughes officials describe CTI as the most advanced oil and gas production equipment testing facility in the industry.
      Danish wind equipment giant Vestas has moved into its new research center in Houston and plans to employ about 100 when it is fully operational by the end of 2010.
      Vestas said the decision to locate the North American research center in Houston followed a thorough placement analysis of a number of locations across the U.S. followed by a specific analysis of Texas carried out by Vestas Technology R&D in cooperation with the Greater Houston Partnership, the City of Houston and the State of Texas.
      "Houston provides access to a highly qualified work force in an international and extremely energy-focused research and development environment," Finn Strøm Madsen, president of Vestas Technology R&D, said when the project was announced. "In addition, Houston will allow Vestas to establish and strengthen relations within the North American and global energy industry. Tapping into and contributing to the tremendous pool of knowledge and know-how offered by Houston's energy environment is invaluable in our quest to develop wind turbines that also in the future can meet the technological and cost-efficiency demands of our customers."       Houston-based Greenstar North America, the country's largest private processor of recyclables and the largest municipal recycler in Texas, has opened the largest recycling facility in Texas. The plant is among the largest, most automated single-stream facilities in North America. Greenstar has the capacity to process 20,000 tons per month at its 180,000-sq.-ft. (16,722-sq.-m.) facility located on nine acres (3.6 hectares) in San Antonio.
      "The City of San Antonio has helped to pioneer recycling in Texas," said Mike Wynne, CEO of Greenstar North America and chairman and CEO of Greenstar Global.
      While Texas has not traditionally been known for its recycling programs, Greenstar sees that perception shifting in the near future. The company says it selected Texas as its North American headquarters based on potential growth in commercial and municipal recycling.
      Greenstar has invested more than $300 million in its U.S. recycling business over the last two years, $50 million of which has been in Texas. The San Antonio facility employs about 100.
      Global Electric Electronic Processing (GEEP) has opened a new computer recycling plant in Grand Prairie, smack in the middle of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. The company, which also has facilities in North Carolina and in Ontario and Alberta, Canada, crushes and grinds electronic waste and then sorts and recycles the plastic and metal.
      Grand Prairie is also home to Round2 Monitex, which operates a 183,000-sq.-ft. (17,000-sq.-m.) facility it says is the largest electronics recycling facility in Texas. The company specializes in recycling cathode-ray-tube products.