Wind farm staff recognized landowners’ contribution to the wind industry with volunteer trash clean-up event and barbecue at local restaurant
Texas Border Business
McCook, Texas – EDP Renewables North America, a leading renewable energy company headquartered in Houston, Texas, hosted a landowner appreciation lunch and volunteer trash collection event with Los Mirasoles Wind Farm on Saturday, August 24, to commemorate American Wind Week, an annual celebration of American wind power and the opportunities it creates. This year’s events ran from August 11-17.
To kick off the day’s events, 16 volunteers from EDP Renewables’ construction team and Vestas conducted a highway clean-up “Trash-Off” during which 15 bags of trash were picked up.
Following the volunteer event, a luncheon was hosted at Los Mesquites Biker Bar, a local favorite, where attendees enjoyed barbecue cooked by Los Mirasoles Wind Farm’s own Operations Manager JP Hunter. The event afforded Los Mirasoles operations staff and wind technicians the opportunity to show their appreciation for the local property owners who made the wind farm possible by leasing their land.
“The overall progress of the wind industry in America is made possible by our amazing landowners,” said Norma Rodriguez, Los Mirasoles Wind Farm Operations Administrator, who spearheaded the event. “We truly value the relationships that Los Mirasoles Wind Farm has allowed us to cultivate with them.”
Texas currently leads the nation in wind energy production. EDPR’s Texas wind farms boast an impressive total installed capacity of 650 megawatts (MW), which is enough to annually power more than 149,000 Texas homes. Los Mirasoles Wind Farm became operational in 2016, and EDPR has disbursed a total of $10.2 million to local governments and $6.4 million to landowners as of 2018.
The wind farm has stimulated additional economic development in south Texas through job creation and has boosted local businesses in the Rio Grande Valley. Los Mirasoles Wind Farm created 210 full-time equivalent jobs during construction and 17 permanent positions, which spurred $27.2 million in local spending within a 50-mile radius of the wind farm through 2018. The 125 wind turbines on-site can provide electricity for 57,000 Texan households while also saving more than 444 million gallons of water each year.
Visit AmericanWindWeek.org to learn more about American wind power.
