Huge wind farm planned for South Dakota

PIERRE, S.D. - Oct 10 (The Associated Press)

Plans for the world's largest wind farm _ 10 times bigger than the largest one currently making electricity _ are on track for South Dakota.

Clipper Windpower of Carpinteria, Calif., wants to build the huge complex in the center of the state. The $3 billion wind farm would have 1,000 turbines and a capacity of 3,000 megawatts.

The largest wind farm now is the FPL Energy Stateline Wind Project on the Washington-Oregon border. It has 454 turbines and a capacity rating of 300 megawatts.

The largest concentration of wind turbines in the nation is on Buffalo Ridge in southwestern Minnesota, with about 25 individual wind farms and more than 600 turbines capable of 500 megawatts.

Clipper plans to erect wind turbines in five South Dakota counties, although the firm is hesitant to identify them.

"There are many contracts, agreements, and other requirements which limit the amount of information released at this time," says Becky Bayne, a member of Clipper's communications staff.

Clipper had earlier obtained five-year easements from about 80 landowners in Hutchinson, Turner and Yankton counties in 2001 for a proposed project that involved construction of 150 wind turbines.

James Dehlsen, Clipper's chairman and chief executive officer, says the Rolling Thunder project will be built in stages.

"It's alive and well," he says.

"Our aim is to get the first 100 or 200 megawatts off the ground in two or three years," Dehlsen says. "Once that happens, then I think the long-term roll out of it would be something we could afford to do, and it would have certain momentum."

Clipper initially would hook its electricity into Western Area Power Administration lines that connect the state's hydroelectric dams, he says.

Existing transmission lines in the state could perhaps handle another 1,000 megawatts by improved power scheduling and rules changes, Dehlsen says. Beyond that, it will require increased transmission facilities to move additional electricity to large cities far away from South Dakota's borders, he says.

"To really take advantage of the resource in the area you would need some fairly substantial transmission links east and west," Dehlsen says.

Wind energy is a perfect fit with South Dakota's water energy, Dehlsen says.

Four Missouri River dams account for 58.5 percent of power production capacity in South Dakota; coal, oil and gas provide 40.1 percent of capacity; and the remaining 1.4 percent comes from wind, says Steve Wegman, an analyst with the state Public Utilities Commission.

Wegman says South Dakota power plants that are run on fossil fuels, water and wind can produce 2,869 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power about 717,000 homes. Oahe Dam, which has 714 megawatts of capacity, is the largest producer of electricity in the state, followed by Big Bend Dam and the Big Stone Power Plant.

Wegman says South Dakota has excellent potential for wind energy but must find ways of exporting that power to big cities that need it in other states.

Recent restoration of an expired federal tax credit for renewable energy is expected to spur increased interest in development of wind farms across the nation. The credit is 1.8 cents per kilowatt-hour for the first 10 years that wind farms operate.

Great Plains states, with their wide-open spaces and rural atmosphere, are said to have the best winds for electrical production.

Mike Ropp, an electrical engineering professor at South Dakota State University, has been involved for three years in a project to measure wind potential in South Dakota. Five wind gauges are in place in eastern and central South Dakota, and Ropp hopes to install at least seven more at various locations _ primarily west of the Missouri River.

Preliminary data so far suggest that the state has nearly unlimited potential for wind farms, he says.

"In general, all of our sites are either equal to expectations or better," Ropp says.

"South Dakota can generate an awful lot of electricity, probably a double-digit percentage of our national needs," he says. "Our big limitation isn't the wind resource. It's the transmission. We can't get the electricity out of here."

South Dakota's only large wind farm of 40 megawatts is located in Hyde County. A few smaller wind farms are in scattered locations.

A $300 million wind farm has been proposed for the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Oglala Sioux tribal officials have signed an agreement with a Chicago investment firm to develop the 300 megawatt project. However, a company official has said that no buyer has yet been secured for the electricity.

A Texas firm has indicated interest in building a wind farm in Walworth County.

There also was mention earlier this year of a proposed 2,000-megawatt, $2 billion wind farm in eastern North Dakota.