West Central Texas may have only two kinds of counties: those that already have wind farms, and those destined to have them.

The year 2005 was by far the area's banner year for wind farm completion to date, but with projects under construction and several on the drawing boards, 2006 might make people forget 2005. Or at least dim their memories.

Greg Wortham, executive director of the West Texas Wind Energy Consortium, said he sees no reason other Big Country counties can't join the wind energy rush along with Nolan, Taylor, Scurry and Howard counties.

''Winds blow just as hard (in other area locations) as they blow in Abilene and Sweetwater,'' Wortham said. And technology is evolving in the direction of enabling turbines to generate economically viable amounts of electricity at ever-lower wind speeds, he said.

In 2005, projects completed in Nolan and Taylor counties added 674.1 megawatts. For the entire country, the total was somewhat more than 2,400 MW, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

Nolan and Taylor counties' newest wind projects pushed Texas to the brink of first place in North America in wind power capacity, poised to surpass California this year. When 2005 started, the two counties had 125 operating windmills, capable of generating 187.5 megawatts of electricity. Now there are more than 500 wind turbines in the two counties.

What's more, Horse Hollow is ranked as the third largest wind farm operating in the United States by the AWEA.

More projects are on the way.

SeaWest, a California company acquired by AES in early 2005, is planning two more phases of the Buffalo Gap project, including a project in southwest Taylor County adjacent to its first phase. The new Taylor County project would be about 56 MW, with the number of turbines dependent on what capacity turbines the company can acquire. SeaWest also plans to start a larger project in Nolan County, although the scope has not been determined.

Additional Horse Hollow phases are under way in Taylor County and in adjacent territory across the line in Nolan County.

Already this year, Shackelford County has under way a new project, which Callahan County hopes to join. Scurry County has granted property tax abatements for two wind projects east of Snyder, in the Camp Springs area.

Horizon Wind Energy's project under way in southwestern Shackelford County could total as much as 600 megawatts, according to the Public Utility Commission of Texas.

And Runnels County economic development leaders are aggressively laying the groundwork for a wind project or projects in their county, Wortham said.

''This is a great shot in the arm x85 a lot of new (property) valuation,'' said Shackelford County Judge Ross Montgomery.

In Erath County, Clipper Windpower of California plans to install a 60 megawatt wind farm in 2007.

Landowners and public officials in Kent and Stonewall counties report negotiations with an unnamed wind energy company, or perhaps companies, looking to place wind farms in their jurisdictions.

In all, new wind projects under consideration, planning and construction, could add more than 1,500 megawatts in West Central Texas, by Wortham's figures.

Not everyone is thrilled to see wind turbines springing up like so many gargantuan mushrooms in their neighborhood. Landowners in the Horse Hollow project area sued FPL in 42nd District Court in February 2005, seeking to block construction and failing that, requesting damages.

The plaintiffs allege the impending placement of wind turbines near their homes would lower their property values and lessen their enjoyment of peaceful and quite rural solitude with the turbines' noise and red lights blinking at night (a safety feature to alert low-flying airplanes and the like.)

Dale Rankin, one of the lead plaintiffs who lives near Coronado's Camp, compared the noise made by the wind turbines' whirring blades to the sound level of highway traffic constantly whizzing by.

Before construction started, opponents of the Horse Hollow project complained that the project would ruin some of the most scenic parts of Taylor County

The lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial in September, said Steve Thompson, a Houston attorney representing the plaintiffs.

FPL spokesman Steve Stengel said his company doesn't comment on litigation in process.

Landowners whose property is impacted by nearby turbines have been granted a 10 percent reduction on their real estate appraisals, said Richard Petree, chief appraiser of the Taylor County Central Appraisal District. He doesn't yet have sales data that to show more precisely how property values may have been affected by neighboring turbines, he said.

On the upside, landowners with turbines on their property receive annual royalties from the wind companies. Amounts range from $3,000 to $6,000 per turbine, Petree estimates.

Wortham, the wind energy trade group exec, said transmission line capacity looks adequate to ferry to market the wind energy generated by new 2006 projects. Some transmission routes have undeveloped capacity that can be easily upgraded without the time-consuming hassle of starting from scratch, which requires the acquisition of rights-of-way from landowners, he said.

As insurance for projects in the more distant future, wind energy boosters in this area should pull for Odessa to win the FutureGen clean coal demonstration project of the U.S. Department of Energy. That project would demonstrate how to generate electricity in a near-zero emissions coal-fueled plant. Odessa and Jewetta near Waco are Texas' two entries in the race.

The transmission lines necessary to transport coal-generated electricity would provide a good opportunity for additional wind-generated power from the region to piggy-back, Wortham said.

How much electric power does one wind turbine generate?

A one-megawatt wind turbine produces between 2.4 million and more than 3 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, enough to power 225 to 300 households for a year, according to estimates from the American Wind Energy Association. The average home uses 10,655 kilowatt-hours a year.

Projects completed in 2005

Project Location Year built Turbines Megawatts

Callahan Divide S of Merkel, near FM 126 2005 76 114

Sweetwater Phase II S of Sweetwater 2005 61 91.5

Sweetwater Phase III S of Sweetwater 2005 90 135

Horse Hollow U.S. 277, SW of Abilene 2005 142 213

Buffalo Gap W of Buffalo Gap 2005 67 120.6

Total 436 674.1

Previous projects

Project Location Year built Turbines Megawatts

Big Spring I SE of Big Spring 1999 42 27.72

Big Spring II SE of Big Spring 1999 4 6.6

Trent Wind Farm I-20 W of Abilene 2001 100 150

Brazos Wind Ranch U.S. 84, NW of Snyder 2003 160 160

Sweetwater Maryneal, S of Sweetwater 2003 25 37.5

Total 331 381.82

Total wind turbines in the area 767 1055.92