A board with the Lubbock Reese Redevelopment Authority agreed Wednesday to add two new tenants to Texas Tech's Reese Technology Center, including a renewable-energy company with a big, windy secret.

If its claims are true and its testing is successful, Michigan-based company WATTS Energy may raise the Lubbock region's wind-engineering notoriety to new heights.

According to the company's Web site, www.wattsenergy.com, it will develop a new technology that will enact "a quantum shift in the technology of wind power generation." Essentially, the company aims to revolutionize the process of turning wind into energy.

Due to its proprietary nature, nearly every aspect of the project must be kept confidential for now, said Greg Switaj, vice president of the company. The company will be happy to divulge more about its mysterious plans for wind-energy generation this spring.

For now, he said, the company is asking Lubbock residents to exercise patience.

"We are doing some of our initial work right down there in the Lubbock area," Switaj said. "Again, we're not trying to be coy or cute or whatever, it's just that, in putting all this together, we have to keep some information fairly mum until we're in a position to do so."

Though a non-disclosure agreement restricts him from saying much, Dean Smith, vice president of research at Texas Tech and a board member for the Lubbock Reese Redevelopment Authority, said an informal relationship between Tech's Wind Science and Engineering Research Center, a Reese tenant, and WATTS' Energy may have played a role in company's selection of Lubbock.

Collaboration, he said, may be a possibility, but nothing currently is official.

"They're going to be located right near our wind center, so it will be a natural - they know each other, they talk to each other," Smith said. "There are no formal research collaboration plans. It's just proximity alone."

Smith said Tech researchers are excited about the arrival of the company.

A 25,000-square-foot warehouse and some additional office space will house WATTS Energy, said Todd Reno, director of business development at Reese, who also noted his obligation to the non-disclosure agreement.

If everything goes well at a time "down the road," he said, the company will acquire an additional 55,000-square-foot facility on campus.

Wednesday's board meeting also approved a lease for a local software company, Global Business Software Development Technologies, which already is based in Lubbock but wanted to relocate to Reese, said Jace Henderson, operations manager for the company. Reese offers a more appropriate environment for his company than its current location.

"It also looks better for us to be in a technology center like that than it does where we're at currently," he said.

Also new to the Reese roster since last fall, Reno said, will be several companies, including a ready-built home builder, Tri Mesa Homes; Diamond Aircraft; and N-COM Technologies, an IT consulting firm.

The economic impact of bringing high-tech companies to Lubbock goes a long way, Reno said. Including WATTS and GBSD, 17 companies currently call Reese home.

Switaj said he is pleased with WATTS' decision to come to the Hub City.

"I can say that the people that we've met down there are just incredibly nice - just off the charts, great to do business with," Switaj said. "It's been a very positive experience so far, and I'm just sure it'll continue."