Babcock & Brown, an Australia-based investor, has announced plans for the Majestic Wind Farm, a 79.5 megawatt wind farm to be located in the Texas Panhandle.

Babcock & Brown has secured the necessary financing for the farm and started construction. The Majestic Wind Farm only represents a fraction of Babcock & Brown's plans for investing in American wind power, however.

The investment firm plans to spend approximately $1 billion to build wind farms throughout Texas, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The final product will be 567.5 megawatts of wind power. Babcock & Brown already has 20 wind farms in nine states, with a total capacity of almost 1,600 megawatts. The company is believed to be in the top five wind developers operating in the U.S. Last month, Babcock & Brown sold its Spanish wind farms -- representing 17 percent of the company's portfolio -- for a profit of $234 million.

Babcock & Brown is just one of many investors working in the Texas Panhandle region; the state has gone to great lengths to entice wind developers into the region. By the end of 2010, Texas expects to have 4,200 megawatts of wind power in the area. Airtricity, Celanese, Occidental Energy Ventures and Sharyland Utilities are also expected to participate.

Image — Babcock & Brown