SOUTH DAKOTA WIND

There's financial opportunity here for the people of this state. Will they see it that way. Yes. The question is when, sooner or later? Learn more at WINDPOWER 2007

South Dakota’s wind potential
Carla Hetland, May 16, 2007 (Minnesota Public Radio)

WHO
Brad Barton, Director of Commercialization & Deployment, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), Brian Parsonswatches, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Lloyd Linke, Power Systems Operations Manager, Western Area Power
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WHAT
South Dakota wind potential is very high while its production is very low.

WHEN
Comments made at a South Dakota wind energy conference the week of May 15, hosted by Senator Thune.

WHERE
Conference in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Minnesota wind production: 895 megawatts. South Dakota: 44 megawatts.

WHY
- South Dakota wind could generate 566,000 megawatts, half of US electricity needs.
Economic opportunity is enormous, both in manufacturing the turbines and selling the energy.
- One obstacle: S.D.’s lack of a renewable energy standard (RNS) which would give investors enough certainty to initiate development by legislatively committing the state to a certain level of energy generation from renewables by a certain year.
- Another obstacle: S.D.’s lack of transmission infrastructure, an expensive undertaking the state needs to look to utility companies and other states to share because the economic benefits outweigh the cost. S.D. is presently working with Minnesota and Canada to overcome its significant limitations in transmission but these indirect routes add cost, pricing the state out of the market.

QUOTES
- Barton: "So we're not even scratching the surface…There's just so much potential and opportunity here…It's good for everyday folks because it creates real manufacturing jobs and those are just only going to grow. This is not something that's going to be made in China these blades are 60 to 70 meters long and hard to transport. You're going to build them right here in South Dakota…"
- Parsonswatches, NREL: "But on a relative basis compared to the rest of the electric power market and what the costs are, it's not a big fraction of it. It's really not an expensive part of it…But it's difficult, it's expensive and you have to figure out who is going to pay for it."
- Linke: "Power likes to take the path of least resistance, which isn't always the direct path…Even taking energy out of South Dakota moving it towards Minneapolis and Chicago you can hit on the Manitoba hydro export along the Canadian border or several other constrained paths as we try to bring energy out of South Dakota to the load areas of Minneapolis and Chicago."