While City Council didn't exactly breeze through the budget Monday, they did find the time to approve several wind power contracts, which, if all adopted, will put the city in spitting distance of their ambitious renewable energy goals.

Monday, council approved two 25-year agreements with Houston's Duke Energy Generation Services and Palo Alto's MAP Royalty Inc. for wind-power purchases totaling up to $675 million (for 200 megawatts) and $375 million (for 91 megawatts), respectively.

While that may sound like a lot of money, the city notes "The new projects are priced in the $35 to $45 per megawatt-hour range which is comparable to current and near-term pricing for natural gas power. These prices reflect a significant drop in power prices in general and in wind since 2008. The prices are indicative of the declining demand due to the economic downturn and lower natural gas prices because of increases in shale gas supplies." The world's loss is our gain, apparently.

Additionally, council authorized preliminary approval of a third wind power contract, a 25-year, 200 megawatt deal with Iberdrola Renewables, an offshoot of a Spanish energy company, for $725,000,000. The contract's slated to return to council for final approval September 22. Combined, all three contracts will take Austin Energy's renewable energy portfolio to 30% by next year – just below it's goals of achieving 35% of its' energy mix from renewables, as set out in the utility's generation plan.

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