Terra-Gen adds to Texas wind power

Renewable energy developer and operator Terra-Gen recently added big-time to its wind power assets in Texas, with the completion of the 238 MW Monte Cristo 1 wind power project in Hidalgo County, and plans for a Monte Cristo 2 wind project are on the hori

By Diane Mettler

The Monte Cristo wind power project in South Texas had a simple beginning.

About 20 years ago, when Terra-Gen’s team lead Milt Howard first stepped off a plane to evaluate a project near the city of Harlingen, he spotted a statue with its flag ripped to shreds by wind. He knew then that South Texas was a new frontier for wind energy.

Fast forward to 2026 and the vision is a reality. The new Monte Cristo 1, located on 17,000 acres in Hidalgo County, Texas, is operational and is the company’s second wind project in Texas. The 238.5-MW facility—with enough energy to produce power for about 81,000 homes a year—brings the company’s total clean energy generation in the state to 271 MW, with its other Texas wind project, Big Springs Wind Farm, at 34.3 MW.

Terra-Gen is no stranger to large projects. The company is one of the largest independent, integrated renewable energy producers in the U.S., jointly owned by Masdar and Igneo Infrastructure Partners, and employs over 360 people, split between development and operations, throughout the U.S.

Tyler Pierce, Director of Development for Terra-Gen, says this project actually began about eight years ago.

“Normally, projects move faster, but there were unique things with Monte Cristo 1, such as COVID and changing tax policies. But ideally a project like this can be developed in three to four years. “

The permitting wasn’t difficult. In fact, permitting in Texas is a little less onerous than in other states.

“There’s more self-imposed responsibility on the developer than there really is from the local governments,” says Pierce. “There are still your traditional building permits and there’s still a lot of local engagement. And in Texas, the developer makes sure that they are abiding by wind energy guidelines, being a good steward of the environment and engaging with all the different regulatory bodies like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Army Corps of Engineers, and others.”

What Texas developers do have to deal with—that some states don’t—is miles of underground pipelines.

Texas has a great deal of oil and gas infrastructure and Pierce says this requires engaging with all the pre-existing entities and utilities, and also working side by side with them, to ensure everything above and below ground can co-exist. 

The new Monte Cristo 1 wind facility, located on 17,000 acres in Hidalgo County, is operational and is the company’s second wind project in Texas. The 238.5-MW facility has enough energy to produce power for about 81,000 homes a year.

Although the Hidalgo County area isn’t being actively explored anymore for oil and gas, there continues to be a lot of infrastructure to work around.

“When multiple wells are drilled in an area, they’re typically connected by a network of pipelines that feed into a central facility,” says Pierce. “Over time, this creates a kind of underground ‘spider web’ of pipelines that you have to carefully navigate.

“For example, when placing wind turbines, you need to make sure they aren’t positioned directly over existing infrastructure, and the records can be incorrect. At the same time, all of the turbines need to be connected with their own underground systems.”

In short, it’s critical to work closely with oil and gas operators. “You need to understand where their infrastructure is, and they need to know your plans,” says Pierce. “From there, you establish agreements to ensure both projects can operate smoothly and co-exist over the long term.”
Another challenge for any wind project is—ironically—wind.

“We are in an incredibly windy area and it’s really hard to erect turbines when it’s really windy,” says Pierce. “You’re trying to control your environment when you’re making these major turbine lifts. And when you contract with these Engineering Procurement Companies (EPCs), they expect a certain number of wind days that you’re unable to use a crane.”

With the Monte Cristo project, there ended up being double the number of windy days expected. But Pierce sees a brighter side, “You do know you have a really good site.”

With 11 landowners, some with thousands of acres, and others with as few as 40, communication is key.

	What Texas wind project developers have to deal with—that some states don’t—is miles of underground pipelines. Texas has a great deal of oil and gas infrastructure and this requires wind project developers and EPCs to engage with all the pre-existing entities and utilities, and work side by side with them, to ensure everything above and below ground can co-exist.

“It’s important to maintain expectations with the landowners, because it’s a long process,” says Pierce. “And it’s difficult when you’ve set expectations with landowners for a typical four-to-five-year development cycle and then COVID happens. But they were very understanding.”

Throughout the entire process, Terra-Gen ensured that the landowners received a detailed account for what to expect and when.

“By keeping folks in the loop on how things are evolving and communicating changes early, the happier you can keep people,” says Pierce.

“Not everything happens at once,” explains Pierce. “First, it’s important to bring roads in because ultimately everything else that’s going to be delivered is going to be supported by those roads.”

“After roads, they start excavating and pouring foundations. Around the time those foundations are finished, we start receiving turbine compo-nents. Then the main crane will
arrive and we’ll start erecting different parts of the turbines.  The crane then sweeps across the entire project site because these main cranes are so large and so unique that most of the time there’s only one or two that are provided to a project during its construction.”

When it came to choosing the turbines, Terra-Gen went with Vesta 4.5 megawatt turbines, with integrated transformers. As with every project, Terra-Gen evaluates all manufacturers against the wind resource and finds the right supplier for the project.

“Ultimately, the most important part of any of these projects is connecting to the grid. So, we worked with the local transmission service provider, ETT (Electric Transmission Texas) and they built a facility that allowed us to interconnect the project into the local grid.”

During construction of the Monte Cristo project, there ended up being double the number of windy days expected. But the bright side to this? Terra-Gen knows they have a really good site. The EPC on the Mone Cristo 1 project was Wanzek Construction.

A project of this scope requires people—lots of people. At the peak there were upwards of 280 people working on Monte Cristo 1.

We always try to use local labor,” says Pierce. “But wind has a lot of very specialized components to it. Even pouring foundations, it’s not like pouring a foundation for your house. These highly engineered foundations have tight specifications. So, when we engage these EPC groups, they come with highly specialized individuals. In this case the EPC was Wanzek Construction.”

However, with the other tasks, like roads, Terra-Gen utilizes local labor. Monte Cristo 1 required over 26 miles of roads to be built or upgraded.

“We had three different tiers,” explains Pierce. “There were state roads (TxDOT roads), the county roads, and then the private roads. In the case of TxDOT, there was one main artery that came into our project area, and it was in a reasonable condition.”

Terra-Gen partnered with TxDOT and paid to have 11 miles of state highway upgraded.

“We needed to ensure that we wouldn’t find ourselves in any predicaments during construction because all of our infrastructure needed to come through a main artery,” explains Pierce. 

When it came to the county roads, Terra-Gen entered into a road use agreement with the local county because a handful of the roads that the company was going to use needed improvements, to be able to support the heavy equipment.

Again Terra-Gen stepped in to assist. “We made significant upgrades to those roads to ensure that they were adequate for our use,” says Pierce. “And when all was said and done, we made sure that they were in a state better than we started.”

One of the great things about wind power is in the end wind power projects have a very small footprint and low impact on the land.

During construction, Pierce estimates that they use around six to seven acres per wind turbine. “You need a sizable footprint to have all the wind turbine components laid out, and to have room for the crane to erect them.”

Once the turbines are up, that footprint quickly shrinks. In this case, about half of the land was ranch land and Terra-Gen filled in holes, de-compacted soil, re-seeded, and whatever else the ranchers needed.

“When the dust settled, that six or seven acres of impact reduced down to about two-tenths of an acre,” says Pierce. “These folks can now continue to farm and ranch and also get this incremental income from the energy project.”

Going forward, the project will be managed by Terra-Gen with employees on site, supported by Vestas under a long-term services agreement.

With a name like Monte Cristo 1, one has to wonder if there may be a Monte Cristo 2 in Terra-Gen’s future. Pierce says, yes, it’s on the horizon. “There is somewhat of a sister project that we have planned for this community. I’m not relying on the same exact landowners but utilizing some land nearby.

“It will be almost like a twin,” adds Pierce. “I believe there’s a ton of opportunity left for wind energy. I think we need diverse energy resources for the grid.”

Q2 2026