FPL Energy, LLC today announced the development of one of the world's largest wind-powered electric generating facilities to be located on King Mountain in Upton County, Texas, approximately 50 miles south of Midland-Odessa.

The project will have a generating capacity of 278.2 megawatts, sufficient to supply power to more than 80,000 Texas homes. It will be owned and operated by FPL Energy, LLC, the independent power production subsidiary of FPL Group Inc. . Electricity generated by the new facility will be sold to Reliant Energy of Houston, Austin Energy and Texas-New Mexico Power.

"We are pleased to be enhancing our portfolio in Texas, where demand for electricity is growing and state regulators are encouraging development of a robust wholesale market, particularly in renewable sources and clean-burning natural gas," said FPL Energy President Lew Hay.

FPL Energy currently owns and operates a 1,000-megawatt natural gas plant in Paris, Texas and the 75-megawatt Southwest Mesa Wind Farm in West Texas. In addition, there are two plants currently under construction, a 535-megawatt natural gas plant in Bastrop, near Austin, and the 160-megawatt Woodward Mountain wind power facility, also in the Midland-Odessa area.

FPL Energy is a leading independent producer of clean energy, including natural gas, wind, solar and hydroelectric. It owns and operates power plants with more than 4,100 total net megawatts in 12 states across the country. Given current development activities, FPL Energy expects to have more than 9,000 megawatts in operation by 2003.

FPL Energy is the largest U.S. generator of wind power, representing nearly 15% of its total portfolio. It currently operates wind farms in five states, with nearly 1,000 megawatts of capacity and a net FPL Energy ownership of almost 600 megawatts. The company expects to add up to 1,000 megawatts of wind energy capacity to its operational portfolio by the end of 2001. In January, FPL Energy announced the development of the largest wind power facility in the world, a 300-megawatt project along the Washington-Oregon border, south of Walla Walla.

The King Mountain project was developed by an affiliate of international wind energy company Renewable Energy Systems LTD (RES), together with Cielo Wind Power LLC of Austin, Texas. RES will build the wind farm on a mesa near McCamey, amongst the Permian Basin oil fields of West Texas. The project will use 214 wind turbines -- supplied by Bonus Energy A/S of Denmark -- with a rated power of 1.3 megawatts each.

FPL Energy is a leading independent producer of clean energy, including natural gas, wind, solar, geothermal and biomass generating facilities in the United States and abroad. FPL Group, with annual revenues of more than $7 billion, is one of the nation's largest providers of electricity-related services. FPL Group's principal subsidiary is Florida Power & Light Company, one of the nation's largest electric utilities, serving approximately 3.9 million customer accounts in Florida. Additional information is available on the Internet at http://www.fplenergy.com/, http://www.fplgroup.com/ and http://www.fpl.com/.

SOURCE: FPL Energy, LLC