AEP has an active wind development program and has been monitoring wind resources since the mid-1990s.

AEP owns 310.5 megawatts of wind generation capacity in Texas. AEP's Trent Mesa Wind Farm – located near Abilene in Nolan and Taylor County, Texas – was completed in 2001 and has a capacity of 150 megawatts. All of the energy produced from this project is sold to Luminant under a wholesale energy supply contract.

The 160-megawatt Desert Sky Wind Farm – located near Iraan in Pecos County, Texas – also was completed in 2001. All of the energy produced from this project is sold to CPS Energy of San Antonio under wholesale energy supply contracts.

In addition to owning and operating its own facilities, AEP’s regulated operating companies also have agreements to purchase 1,396 megawatts of electricity from several wind power facilities in Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Texas.

AEP’s Regulated Wind Energy Power Purchase Agreements

AEP led in the development of the e8’s San Cristobal Wind Project in the Galapagos Archipelago, dedicated in March 2008. The 2.4-MW project, completed in collaboration with e8, the United Nations and Ecuador, is the first large-scale wind project in Ecuador and is one of the largest wind-diesel hybrid systems in the world. With major AEP funding and project leadership, this project underscores AEP’s vision to lead in technical innovation of power systems and environmental technology, and in building strong communities.

AEP’s 17 hydroelectric facilities in Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan generate more than 800 megawatts of electricity.

Smith Mountain Hydro Project, on the Roanoke River southeast of Roanoke, Virginia, was the nation’s first major development combining run-of-the-river hydro with pumped storage generation. Water held in the lower reservoir (Leesville) is pumped back into the upper reservoir (Smith Mountain) during off-peak hours, for use in generating electricity during times of peak demand. The Smith Mountain and Leesville facilities have a combined generating capacity of more than 600 megawatts. The Claytor Hydro facility, located on the New River in Virginia, is AEP’s next-largest hydro project with a generating capacity of 76 megawatts.

Our hydro plant section provides more information.

AEP recognizes the potential of solar energy as an increasingly attractive energy for the future. As an illustration of its commitment to solar energy, AEP Ohio, AEP’s Columbus, Ohio-based operating company, signed a long-term power purchase agreement for solar energy with Wyandot Solar LLC, a subsidiary of juwi solar Inc. juwi solar, Inc. is a solar energy company based in Colorado that develops, designs, builds and operates utility-scale solar projects in North America.

Through the 20-year agreement, AEP Ohio will purchase all of the output from the 10.08-MW Wyandot Solar facility which is located adjacent to AEP Ohio’s North Upper Sandusky substation in Upper Sandusky, OH. The project, located on approximately 80 acres in Salem Township, will consist of 160,000 Photovoltaic Modules supplied by First Solar, Inc., a company that manufactures solar modules in Perrysburg, OH.

AEP is also involved in solar energy education and outreach. More than 125 schools participate in AEP’s Learning From Light program. Through these programs, AEP partners with learning institutions to install solar photovoltaic systems, and uses these systems to track energy use and demonstrate how solar energy is a part of the total energy mix.

Biomass represents a potentially carbon-neutral energy source, in that the carbon released during the conversion of plants and trees into electricity is the same carbon that is taken out of the atmosphere during photosynthesis. AEP also has conducted biomass co-firing tests and analyses at several of its power plants in the U.S. The company continues to investigate biomass fuels and views biomass co-firing as an effective means of meeting possible renewable energy requirements in the future.