January 27, 2024
North Dakota

Hearing set Monday on wind farm proposed for North Dakota coal country

Jan 27, 2024 | By Jeff Beach | newsfromthestates.com

The public will be able to weigh in Monday on a proposed wind farm in Oliver County, the heart of North Dakota coal country.

The North Dakota Public Service Commission hearing will be at 10 a.m. Central time Monday, in the Betty Hagel Memorial Civic Center in Center. The PSC intends to livestream the hearing on its website, www.psc.nd.gov.

NextEra Energy’s Oliver Wind IV Energy Center would spread 73 wind turbines over more than 22,000 acres near Hannover, west of Center, with an estimated cost of $316 million, according to the PSC. It would produce up to 200 megawatts of electricity.

There also would be a nearly 20-mile, 345 kilovolt electric transmission line in Oliver and Mercer counties connecting the wind farm to the Basin Electric Power Cooperative Leland Olds Station. The estimated cost of the line is $43 million.

Oliver County falls in the legislative district of Rep. Anna Novak, R-Hazen.

Novak said there is a benefit to the landowners that will get payments from the developer, but her fear is that it will have a long-term negative effect on energy companies that burn coal.

The Milton R. Young power plant in Oliver County is a coal-burning plant operated by the Minnkota Power Cooperative, based in Grand Forks.

PSC documents show that Verizon would buy 150 megawatts from the wind farm’s electrical output. NextEra said in documents it’s marketing the remaining 50 megawatts to other potential customers.

Novak says that makes the project a “merchant wind farm,” that will benefit Verizon, but has limited benefits for the state.

Novak said that with merchant wind farms, the buyer often has a facility that can use power from the farm to decrease their reliance on the grid, but she said that isn’t the case for this development.

“This isn’t for a facility in North Dakota,” Novak said.

She said Verizon is buying green energy credits to lower its energy, social, governance score, also known as an ESG score.

“They’re helping lower their ESG score, and greenwashing themselves,” Novak said. “So this is how companies like Amazon, Google, these big companies are able to say that they’re carbon neutral or lower their ESG score is, by doing this and essentially taking advantage of our very valuable transmission lines.”

In an email to the North Dakota Monitor, NextEra said the power from the wind farm will “go where it’s needed.”

“The grid constantly balances the supply and demand for the energy that powers everything from industry to household appliances. While the power goes where it’s needed, the benefits of Oliver Wind IV stay local,” the statement said.

NextEra said it expects to make about $84 million in landowner payments over the 30-year life of the project.

NextEra said the project will contribute approximately $35 million in new tax revenue to the counties.

The Oliver County Commission approved the project in December and Mercer County has approved the transmission line.

If the PSC approves the project, NextEra said it expects the Oliver Wind IV farm to be running by the end of the year.

NextEra Energy Resources, based in Florida, says it has invested $3.8 billion in North Dakota over the last 20 years.

NextEra already operates four wind farms in the area, one with 22 turbines in Oliver County and two farms that are in both Oliver and Mercer counties with a combined 80 turbines. Another project with up to 71 turbines is in development for Oliver County, according to NextEra.

The PSC only takes comments at hearings; comments cannot be mailed or submitted electronically.

The last wind farm approved by the PSC was a Bowman County project approved in February 2023. Construction has not yet begun on that project, according to the PSC.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2024/01/27/hearing-set-monday-on-wind-farm-proposed-for-north-dakota-coal-country/