The planned $180m project will go ahead under the name of New Era Wind Farm after being sold to a locally-based group by Pickens’ American Wind Alliance (AWA), says the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

National Wind – which was developing the project on behalf of Pickens – recently pulled out after being bought by India’s Trishe Wind Energy.

The Texas oilman became a celebrity via his 2008 “Pickens Plan” for reducing US dependence on fossil fuels, and at one stage planned to build the world’s largest wind farm in Texas.

Pickens’