September 3, 2014
North Dakota

PSC enforces wind farm law

By Mary Cate Mannion | KMOT-TV | September 2, 2014 | www.kmot.com

For the first time the Public Service Commission has ordered the owner of the Edgley I and II wind farms to provide a bond for reclamation.

After operating for 10 years, the PSC can ask companies for the amount of money it would cost to remove the turbines and reclaim the land. The bond is a part of several wind farm laws passed by the Legislature in 2003.

“This is the beginning. I think of many more decisions that the Public Service Commission will make financial assurance. We will look at each wind farm on it’s own as a set of merits, but I think the amount of wind farms in the state that there are going to be more of these because when they come into that one-year period we will look at each case,” says Public Service Commissioner Brian Kalk.

The Edgley wind farms were the first two farms in the state of North Dakota. The company estimates that the wind farms in today’s decision will operate for another 25 years.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/09/03/psc-enforces-wind-farm-law/