( CNN ) -- Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens is sinking billions of dollars into a new wind farm in Texas . It is likely to become the biggest in the world , producing enough power for the equivalent of 1.3 million homes . CNN 's Ali Velshi asked the oil legend why he thinks wind could be the answer to this country 's energy problems : . T. Boone Pickens explains his investment in a 4,000-megawatt wind farm to CNN 's Ali Velshi . Ali Velshi : Tell me about the wind . Now , you are buying , for a start , more than 600 wind turbines from General Electric . You 're going to put them on this big tract of land in Texas , and you 're going to generate a lot of electricity . What happens to that electricity ? Tell me where you think you 're going to make your money and how this is going to help the situation in America . T. Boone Pickens : Well , that 's the first step to a 4,000-megawatt wind farm . This is 1,000 megawatts . We start receiving those turbines in mid 2010 . We will have the total 4,000 megawatts finished by the end of 2015 . That power will go into a transmission line that will tie into the Electric Reliability Council of Texas system in the state of Texas , and it will be transmitted downstate . Watch why Pickens is willing to spend billions on wind » . Velshi : What 's your view of wind power ? It 's one of several things that we should be looking at in terms of powering our homes , electrical power ? We get most of it from coal and natural gas , and some from nuclear . Are you thinking it 's one of the formats of power we should be thinking about , or is this going to be bigger than we all thought ? Pickens : The Department of Energy came out with a study in April of '07 that said we could generate 20 percent of our electricity from wind . And the wind power is -- you know , it 's clean , it 's renewable . It 's -- you know , it 's everything you want . And it 's a stable supply of energy . It will be located in [ the ] central part of the United States , which will be the best from a safety standpoint to be located . You have a wind corridor that goes from Pampa , Texas , to the Canadian border . And it has -- the wind , it 's unbelievable that we have not done more with wind . Look at Germany and Spain . They have developed their wind way beyond what we have , and they do n't have as much wind as we do . It 's not unlike the French have done with their nuclear . They 're 80 percent power generated off of nuclear , we 're 20 percent . Velshi : I 'm fascinated by wind power . I love going by a field of these turbines . And I think they 're fascinating . You do n't happen to think they 're attractive , and you 're not really putting them on your land . You 're going to be using other people 's land to put these things on . Pickens : That 's right . And it 's very clear , these are my neighbors . And they want them . It generates income for them . A turbine will generate somewhere around 20,000 [ dollars ] a year in royalty income . And on a 640-acre tract , you can put five to 10 of these on the tract . And you do n't have to have them if you do n't want them . Velshi : And it 's quite common that people who maybe have a piece of land , they might be farmers or something like that , this is extra income to them by making a deal with somebody like you who is going put these things up , if they do n't mind having them on the land . Do they get the electricity from it or do they just get a royalty check ? Pickens : A royalty check . But look at Sweetwater , Texas . That town was 12,000 people , then went down below 10,000 . The wind came in , it 's above 12,000 in population now . The local economy is booming . That can be repeated over and over and over again all the way to the Canadian border . Then you have a solar corridor that goes from Sweetwater , Texas , west to the West coast , and that solar corridor can also be developed . But we are going to have to do something different in America . You ca n't keep paying out $ 600 billion a year for oil .
Oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens planning 4,000-megawatt wind farm . Power will tie to Electric Reliability Council of Texas transmission lines , says Pickens . He will put the turbines on other people 's land . A turbine will generate around $ 20,000 a year in royalties , says Pickens .