SWEETWATER -- T. Boone Pickens may soon be known as more than just an oil man.

The Dallas oil tycoon, along with national news media from ABC News and USA Today, flew into Sweetwater to tour wind farms Wednesday.

For Pickens, the visit was at least his third to what some call "the wind-energy capital."

"Well, I've been here before. I don't know if I'll learn anything new," the 80-year-old Pickens said. "Sweetwater's a great model for me to show off, to show what can happen up through the wind corridor."

Sweetwater may not be the wind-energy capital for long. Pickens is in the process of building what could be the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle.

"We're going to build a 4,000-megawatt farm in Pampa, and we've already bought the turbines for the first 1,000 megawatts, and we'll start construction in the summer of 2010," Pickens said. "We've put together all the land for it. The landowners are ready; we're ready."

Pickens landed at Avenger Field at 2:21 p.m. with a crowd of about 50 gathered to see the man with an estimated net worth of $3 billion.

Pickens met some of the locals waiting to see him, and then he, his group, national media and Sweetwater representatives drove to the wind farms in a fleet of five vehicles.

"We'll be in and out of here pretty fast," Pickens said. "I think we've got to be back off the ground here at about 4:30."

Pickens, who plans to announce his energy plan for the nation next week, said the country's biggest problem is its reliance on foreign oil.

"We've got to get renewable into the mix. The problem for this country is that we're paying $700 billion -- you heard that -- $700 billion a year," Pickens said. "We can't afford that. In 10 years we'll be broke if we continue that."

With that much dependence on foreign oil to supply the nation with energy, Pickens said, he believes the exposure he's given to the "wind corridor" will help spur development and add 2,000 to 3,000 megawatts of energy to the nation's energy grid within 10 to 20 years.

"The wind corridor goes from about Sweetwater all the way to Canada," Pickens said.

Pickens said he won't be the only one pushing for or developing wind energy among America's plains, but he has a plan that will solve energy problems.

"I've got a solution for it, and you'll hear that on Tuesday."