New Mexico has its work cut out if it wants to catch up with its eastern neighbor in wind generation.

Texas is betting big — as in billions of dollars — on a massive system of transmission lines to help move electricity generated along the windy patches of West Texas to the state’s power-hungry metropolitan areas, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

The newspaper reports:

State officials on Thursday gave preliminary approval to a $4.9 billion wind power project that will add a massive system of transmission lines to help move electricity generated along the windy patches of West Texas to power-hungry metropolitan areas such as Austin.
If the plan wins final approval, it would be the country’s largest investment in clean and renewable power.

"What my mission is, it is to get this wind, that has the best capacity factor in the state, down to our citizens," said Barry Smitherman, chairman of the Public Utility Commission, shortly before voting for the plan.

The decision, approved on a 2-1 vote, triggers continued plans for ramping up the state’s power grid system, adding more than 2,000 miles of heavy-duty transmission lines from West Texas near the town of McCamey and the Panhandle to the major population hubs of Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and elsewhere.

New Mexico has set up a Renewable Energy Transmission Authority whose charge is, among other things, to build transmission lines to carry electricity — a portion of which is required to be generated from renewable sources — around the state and beyond.

But that plan is in the preliminary stages compared to what Texas is doing and has done.

The Austin paper goes on:

Already, Texas has won bragging rights as the country’s leading producer of wind power, with the capability to provide the renewable-generated electricity for 1 million homes. For the third year in a row, the state posted the largest increase in the amount of wind capacity added in 2007 with a 57 percent increase, or 1,618 megawatts.

By year’s end, the state will be poised to reach 10,000 megawatts of wind power, and a major upgrade will make the state a leader in moving the renewable power as well.

"We will add more wind than the 14 states following Texas combined," said PUC Commissioner Paul Hudson. "I think that’s a very extraordinary achievement. Some think we haven’t gone far enough; some think we’ve pushed too far."

The plan wouldn’t be in place for several years, but it could result in a $4 increase on Texas consumers’ monthly bills, according to the PUC.