SPI wind farm developer discusses project

Ian Hatton, the CEO and founding director of the company that wants to build a wind farm off South Padre Island, says he doesn’t want to force anything down anyone’s throat.

The U.K. native and head of the Houston-based Baryonyx Corp. was in Brownsville recently to attend the fourth annual Energy Efficiency Green Conference & Expo at the ITEC Center on Jan. 21. Hatton also delivered the event’s keynote address, which detailed his company’s plans to build offshore wind farms to power computer data centers in Cameron and Nueces counties and an onshore wind farm and data center in Dallam County in north Texas.

"The important message that we want to put over is we do come equipped with ears," Hatton said after his expo presentation. "We do listen and we’re prepared to change our plans. The last thing we want to do is to foist an unpopular project onto people that don’t want it."

Hatton, a former Kerr-McGee petroleum geologist now dedicated to renewable energy projects, says his company is well aware of two key concerns that residents of South Padre Island and environs have toward the proposed wind farm: its visibility from shore and its potential impact on migratory birds.

The offshore wind turbines would be located north of the community of South Padre Island and not be disruptive of condominium balcony views, Hatton said. However, he conceded: "These things are pretty big and they will be seen." As far as birds are concerned, this isn’t his first go-round. Hatton left Kerr-McGee in 1999 to form Eclipse Energy, which in 2008 built the first U.K. full-scale, commercial offshore wind project to use giant 5-megawatt wind turbines.

Dubbed the Ormonde Project, it was also unique among U.K. wind projects in that it’s located in a migratory flyway.

"Although the (environmental) assessment was that (the birds) were unlikely to be an issue, we said that we would agree that when these birds were likely to migrate, we would establish a protocol with the relevant authorities to initiate a shut-down period for the turbines. And we would do that until such a time as there was enough data to say either it was a problem or not a problem. We were the only company that actually volunteered to do it."

Hatton says Baryonyx would do the same thing for the South Padre Island project. The environmental assessment for the project will take two years and include an examination of environmental as well as sociological issues. Assuming the project clears the permitting hurdles, from a business perspective Baryonyx is well poised to see the project through to fruition in light of its success with the Ormonde Project. Plus, Baryonyx has the interest of investors, Hatton says.

"We’re already talking to brokers in the main financial centers in the U.S. who are very interested in the company because of the business model with data centers and offshore wind and so on — but also because we’ve done it before," he says.

"We made a good return for our historic investors and they see that as a good track record. And we’ve got some of our previous investors who want to invest again. Right now the business is being funded by myself and my business partner, and by commitments from the people who work for the company, who are effectively taking share ownership rather than salary."

In the end, Baryonyx will probably end up partnering with major corporations on its Texas wind projects, Hatton says. Despite the obstacles, renewable energy technology is only going to become more relevant as the global gap between energy supply and demand gets wider and low-cost energy becomes a thing of the past, he says.

In addition, wind power would boost the local economy through construction and maintenance jobs. If the projects move forward, overseas manufacturers of wind turbines — of which there are none in the United States — may choose to build facilities here rather than continuously ship the giant machines and parts across the Atlantic, he says. Hatton adds that Baryonyx is also "very interested" in Port Isabel as a potential turbine maintenance base. Finally, the company would insist in any deal with turbine suppliers that job training be provided to local residents to replace the outside technicians who’ll probably be brought in at the beginning, he says.

"For us that’s an important asset of these developments, is to get money into the economy," Hatton says. "It’s part of the way we think about things."