Jun. 14--Dallas oilman and investor Boone Pickens wants to build the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle, a project that would put as many as 2,000 turbines on nearly 200,000 acres in four counties.

Pickens' Mesa Power presented its plans to about 250 landowners and their representatives Tuesday in Pampa, about 50 miles northeast of Amarillo, said Mike Boswell, a Mesa official. He said the project would have the capacity to generate 2,000 to 4,000 egawatts -- the equivalent of one or two Comanche Peak nuclear power plants -- and would cost as much as $6 billion, including transmission lines to carry the power to the state's main power grid. Several companies have proposed building transmission lines to connect the growing number of wind farms in West Texas to the state's major urban areas.

The Public Utility Commission began the selection process Monday for the companies that will be appro ed to construct high-voltage lines in the state's Competitive Renewable Energy Zones. The PUC is tentatively scheduled to announce a decision July 5, but the high number of applications could push that back, a PUC spokesman said. Mesa Power filed a no- tice of its interest in those projects in January but hasn't submitted a construction proposal. According to the State Energy Conservation Office, Texas has more than 30 wind farms operating or under construction. FPL Energy's 735.5-megawatt Horse Hollow project 20 miles southwest of Abilene is the world's largest.

FPL, the biggest U.S. generator f wind power, has submitted a proposal to invest $655 million in a high-voltage transmission line. Boswell said Mesa spent about nine months researching the wind farm and is using 12 meteorological towers to determine the best locations on the high prairie, mostly in Gray and Roberts counties and in slices of Hemphill and Wheeler counties. "We've als kicked off negotiations with potential buyers of the energy and the equipment makers," he said. Construction could begin in about three years and would take several years to finish. Financing has not been determined, Boswell said.

Mesa is offering landowners $4,500 per turbine upfront and payments for the electricity produced, starting at 4 percent and rising to 5 percent after eight years, Boswell said. He said those terms are among the industry's most generous. It's not Pickens' first dealing with many of the landowners. His Mesa Water, formed in 1999, has contracted for water rights in the same region. ------ jfuquay@star-telegram.com Jim Fuquay, 817-390-7552