(AUSTIN) -- Ingleside, Texas, located in Senate District 21's San Patricio County, recently was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as the new home of a state-of-the-art wind turbine research center essential in the development of renewable wind energy technology. As a member of the Appropriations Conference Committee that finalized the state's $153 billion budget, Senator Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, secured $5 million in contingency funding needed to ensure the wind research facility's establishment in Texas.

"The new wind turbine research facility will help Texas and private companies secure federal grant money for wind testing projects," Senator Zaffirini said. "I am proud to support these efforts in bringing this facility to Texas and SD 21, partly because I believe that wind power will enhance our state's power supply and economic development while providing valuable research and development for sources of clean alternative energy."

A Texas-led coalition of higher education institutions, businesses and government agencies known as the Lone Star Wind Alliance was responsible for organizing the successful proposal submitted to DOE, which supported the establishment of the wind turbine research center in Texas.

The Lone Star Wind Alliance is directed by the University of Houston's Cullen College of Engineering and is composed of a coalition including The University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, West Texas A&M University, the Houston Advanced Research Center, the Texas General Land Office, the Texas Workforce Commission and several other universities and corporate entities from throughout the nation.

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