Wind is still part of TB Pickens plan. He wants wind to help replace Natural Gas Electrical Power generation. This gives more Natural Gas freed up to compete with transportation fuel. Nat Gas from shale formations are now taking some pressure off this but we remain a Nat Gas importer.
Right now TBP’s competes with coal at a low $/BTU. I believe he wants a bigger piece of transportation market and move his Nat Gas more into that higher $/BTU market. But if we are just trading imported oil for imported LNG, the profit is not as high as producing domestic Nat Gas and only using pipelines.
Technology advances have made the Nat Gas from shale economic and greatly improved our reserves. But the daily production level still remains below our current consumption. Adding significant addition demand as transportation fuel will jack the price of Nat Gas and bring in too many foreign suppliers of LNG. Pickens doesn’t want that much completion before he develops his fueling infrastructure and captures a big market share.
My opinion, nothing more.
I thought that not too long ago, say late September or maybe October, he was on tv bemoaning problem with wind and was shelving his interest in the projects.
Perhaps not
but we remain a Nat Gas importer
Maybe net, but not entirely. I was recently surprised to learn a significant portion of Haynesville Shale gas is being exported by BG and has saved the Haynesville from shutting down due to low gas demand and low prices.