FAYETTE COUNTY, Texas —
As the population in Texas grows, so does the need for power.
The demand for renewable energy is also on the rise as these projects take off in the Lone Star State. The question is: Where should those massive wind turbines and battery energy storage facilities go?
Some Central Texas homeowners, like Tammy Jo McCleney, told the KVUE Defenders, “Not in my backyard.”
McCleney invited KVUE to her Schulenburg home, where she shared her daily routine. It usually doesn’t take long. But on this day, McCleney had to wait for her animals.
McCleney raises miniature cattle, miniature donkeys and miniature goats. But caring for all of them is no miniature job.
McCleney wouldn’t have it any other way.
“One of my favorite things to do is to come sit on the porch in the evening when it cools off and see the sunsets,” she said.
She moved to South Fayette County, 80 miles east of Austin, in 2019, bought 80 acres of land and continues to build her dream home.
“A beautiful county – as you come in, you can see the rolling hills, just enjoy the beautiful scenery,” McCleney said.
The Mustang Wind Project
But in June, McCleney discovered a plan she worried would destroy that scenery and her way of life.
“I was called by a friend who had been contacted by a landman and trying to lease his property for wind turbines,” she said.
McCleney soon learned about the Mustang Wind Project. The plan reportedly would bring between 40 to 80 wind turbines to Fayette County, visible from her land.
“It’s going to be … where the transmission towers [are],” she said. “If you look on the horizon, you can see all of the LCRA transmission towers. From my porch, you can see 22 of them.”
The proposed wind turbines are like those around Goldthwaite, in the Texas Hill Country 100 miles northwest of Austin.
McCleney got to work. She created the Facebook page, “Fayette County Texas – Stop The Wind Turbines.”
“That kind of exploded,” McCleney said.
She also said hundreds of property owners reached out, like Sherri Staha.
“Oh my God, not here,” Staha said about the proposed wind turbines.
She and McCleney made a giant map of the county used at town hall meetings to raise awareness. Hundreds showed up.
“This original poster with the green outline is the original 50,000 acres that the company was targeting to get their wind turbine started,” McCleney said.
Staha said every time she heard from a property owner, she colored their tracts red.
“These are all the people against windmills,” Staha said, showing KVUE on the map.
Sherri Staha’s husband, Bob Staha, is fourth generation. They own two tracts of land.
“It’s 68 acres and then another property is here, it’s 74 acres,” Bob Staha said.
“This is a little piece of heaven,” Sherri Staha said.
They fear farms of massive wind turbines would destroy their country paradise and their land value.
In August, McCleney convinced the Fayette County Commissioners Court to pass a resolution opposing wind farm developments.
State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst even wrote a letter of support to landowners in June, highlighting her effort to bring what she called “common sense oversight to wind and solar installations” during the last legislative session.
Kolkhorst filed Senate Bill 624, which would have required notices of any project to be published in the county newspaper of record. It didn’t pass.
Other projects in Fayette County
Thirty miles away, in the unincorporated community of Warda in northern Fayette County, there’s another fight against a green energy project.
Guadalupe and Cynthia Gutierrez are against the battery energy storage system, or BESS, planned for the property next door.
“So the fence line is going to be right over here … That’s like a magnet for these Bitcoin places and battery storage facilities … It’s a shame. We just do not want to have to leave here or pay the penalty of our appraisal value,” Cynthia Gutierrez said.
They’re also worried about their safety. The Gutierrezes said they are in the battery farm’s hazard zone.
“If they have a thermal runaway on the batteries, we definitely have to evacuate,” Guadalupe Gutierrez said.
These are some of the same concerns a Mason County man told the KVUE Defenders about in July 2024. His new next-door neighbor, a BESS project, was built feet away from his home.
Lithium ion battery fires have killed five people and injured 91 so far in 2024, according to the New York Fire Department. In May, a fire at a California lithium-ion battery storage facility burned for five days and prompted evacuation orders.
On Nov. 1, 2024, the Gutierrezes and other landowners filed a private nuisance lawsuit to try to stop the battery storage project. Attorney Alex Hernandez said the property owners next door interfered with his clients’ rights to use their own land.
“When you have a battery energy storage system that is projected to come next door, the question becomes what does that actually do to their land value?” Hernandez said.
Renewable energy projects are growing
But as concerned as landowners are about the potential impact, renewable energy projects in Texas are not slowing down.
According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the grid manager for 90% of Texas, 889 storage projects are planned as of September 2024. That includes stand-alone battery facilities and battery energy storage systems plus wind energy systems.
In 2023, there were 239 wind-related projects in Texas and more than 15,300 wind turbines, the most of any state, according to the Texas Comptroller’s Office.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also predicts a 44% employment growth in the wind electric power generation industry by 2031.
Kaiba White is the climate and energy policy specialist for Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group.
“Wind energy is growing,” White said.
She also said we may now be seeing planned wind projects in Central Texas because wind curtailment is happening in other parts of the state. Curtailment can happen when there is not enough transmission capacity in a particular region. The U.S Energy Information Administration predicts ERCOT will curtail more wind generation if significant upgrades are not made to the transmission grid.
“Central Texas is obviously kind of surrounded by population centers in every direction. So, you’re maybe less likely to have that issue,” White said.
In October, KVUE received word that the company behind the proposed wind farm in Fayette County may have halted plans for the project, so we reached out to Apex Clean Energy several times.
When we didn’t hear back, we contacted Ares Management Corporation, a private equity firm that acquired a majority stake in Apex in 2021. Two days later, Apex Senior Director of Marketing and Communications Cat Strumlauf sent a statement:
“Apex continually reassesses our project portfolio and how we are allocating resources. We have many early-stage projects across Texas; Fayette County is not a focus at the moment. We will, of course, continue to reassess our portfolio in the future.”
“Obviously, we’re thrilled to hear we’re not a focus,” McCleney said.
But she also said she plans to continue raising awareness about proposed green energy projects.
“It seems like every time we turn around, there’s some sort of battery storage, solar, wind turbine project trying to come into our county,” McCleney said. “It wouldn’t take anything for them to try to come back in here.”
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