A developer that planned Texas’ first off-shore wind farm has pulled its project, a South Padre Island official said. Austin-based Baryonyx Corp.’s two state leases — off of South Padre Island — have expired and the company has not re-applied for a new permit three months after it pulled its permit applica-tions for a wind farm it planned to build about five miles offshore. The wind turbines would have risen 541 feet above the water, state and federal officials said.
“I believe they’ve gone away,” Sungman Kim, the Island’s director of devel-opment services, said. “They were interested but they’re not anymore. There were environmental issues. They didn’t think it was feasible here.” The company did not respond to telephone calls this past week.
Environmentalists, who opposed the wind farm proposal, called the expi-ration of the leases “good new.” But they said they are remaining vigilant. Baryonyx’s two offshore leases expired July 20, Texas General Land Office spokesman Jim Suydam said.
Sandra Arnold, the Army Corps of Engineers spokeswoman, said from the Galveston office the company has not applied to the agency. Baryonyx, whose pro-posed project was among seven originally tapped for possible $47 million U.S. Department of Energy grants, was not among three companies to land the grants on May 7, ac-cording to an Energy De-partment press release.

Fernando Del Valle