Minnesota ‘go green’ mandate prompts new wind projects in North Dakota
Credit: By LAUREN DONOVAN, Bismarck Tribune, www.bismarcktribune.com 1 February 2010
CENTER — Minnesota’s “go green” mandate will cause a vast crop of wind turbines and transmission lines to grow in North Dakota.
Monday, a Minnesota company presented its case for a 230-kV transmission line in Morton and Oliver counties, crossing Lake Nelson and hooking into a major substation on the east side of the lake.
Minnesota Power, which serves the Duluth region, needs the 22-mile line to bridge new wind energy to an existing transmission line. The Public Service Commission’s hearing at Center was at the company’s request to expedite the process. No action was taken at the hearing.
Oliver County’s zoning commission OK’d a conditional use permit for the new line on agricultural land last week and the county commission will likely make it official when it meets today.
Oliver County Commissioners were at the hearing and said no one’s against the project.
Commissioner Dwaine Helmers said the county’s main concern is that the transmission line stays off the public section lines in Oliver County.
Commissioner Lee Husfloen said he hasn’t heard any negative comments about wind farms in Oliver County.
“It’s all positive,” he said.
Minnesota Power plans to build 33 turbines at the western end of the new transmission line in a project it’s calling “Bison Wind.” The wind farm will straddle the Oliver-Morton county line on the west side of Highway 31 nine miles south of Hannover.
These will be granddaddies of the turbine breed, generating 2.3 megawatts each and towering 421 feet from the ground to the tip of the blades when they’re straight up. That’s close to 200 feet higher than the Capitol building in Bismarck. They’ll start rotating at 9 mph and kick off at 56 mph.
Depending on financing, this will be just the tip of the wind farm iceberg. Minnesota Power is taking over ownership of a 500-megawatt-capable transmission line that runs from near Center into Minnesota.
Eventually, it plans to fill the line with wind-generated electricity, which would mean a future wind farm size of between 200 and 250 turbines.
The company says it’s out purchasing wind options now.
“We’d like to build at a controlled pace for a long time,” said Ron Gullicks, Minnesota Power’s project manager. The company is acquiring easements wide enough to build a second 239-kV line parallel to this one.
Gullicks said his company is building wind turbine farms in North Dakota, rather than Minnesota, because it gets better bang for its buck.
“We get a better return because of the quality of the wind resource,” Gullicks said.
The Minnesota Legislature mandates that 25 percent of the state’s energy comes from renewable sources by 2025.
This would be the second wind farm development for Oliver County.
Florida Power and Light, now called NextEra Energy, developed a wind farm northeast of Center.
That project put $443,000 into the county’s property tax coffers in 2009 and Oliver County Auditor Barb Flemmer said $207,000 of that went to the school.
Helmers, the county commissioner, said wind energy development helps make up for coal severance revenue lost when Dakota Westmoreland moved its mine operation out of northwestern Oliver County.
The new transmission line will be strung with bird diverters to protect the endangered whooping crane and the company also is developing a plan to protect other birds and bats.
Gullicks said the new line would be built this summer and be in service by September.
The total wind and transmission project will cost $175 million, he said.
PSC Commission Tony Clark said, “These are remarkable times for energy in North Dakota.” He noted the increased frequency of siting requests and said, “They’re large investments that will make on impact on the land for years to come.”
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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