S. DAKOTA LOOKS AT BIG WIND

Two crucial factors will decide the viability of this project.

One is transmission. If there is financing for new transmission, it will bring financing for the installation. Without new transmission, there is no point in building turbines because the electricity cannot be delivered.

The second: Federal incentives. A production tax credit in place since 1992 will expire at the end of 2007. If the energy bill currently being debated by Congress makes permanent the 1.9 cent/kilowatt-hour credit (or at least provides a long enough extension that producers can make long term plans), big projects like this become more viable.

Just like new nuclear and new coal projects, New Energy projects thrive with government incentives. It's not about whether government should incentivize. It's about WHAT you spend your tax dollars on: Big Wind or Big Trouble?

South Dakota on Burner Yet for Mammoth Wind Farm
Joe Kafka, October 29, 2007 (AP via Yahoo Finance)

WHO
Clipper Windpower (James Dehlsen, CEO); Bob Gates, president, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and Clipper senior VP; Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., National Renewable Energy Labs (NREL)

South Dakota has wind. (click to enlarge)

WHAT
Clipper Windpower is planning a $6 billion, 6,000 megawatt wind installation in South Dakota (SD).

WHEN
- In 2004, Clipper had planned a $3 billion, 1,000 turbine, 3,000 megawatt installation.
- The SD project will be built in stages. Financing has yet to be arranged so the initiation date of the project is not yet determined.

WHERE
- Currently, the world’s biggest wind installation is an FPL Energy facility in Texas.
- Exact location of the SD mega-installation is not yet announced.
- Right now, Texas is 1st in US wind energy capacity, followed by California, Iowa, Minnesota and Washington.
- NREL specifies the hills east of Pierre, mountain ridges of eastern/northeastern border, south-central hills near the Nebraska border and Black Hills as the optimum locations for turbines.

And South Dakota is no stranger to wind energy. (click to enlarge)

WHY
- SD is officially ranked 4th highest among US states for wind energy potential but may be 1st if and when the 10-year-old rankings are redone.
- The Clipper installation would be 8 times bigger than the FPL Energy 421 turbine, 735 megawatt installation.
- Clipper presently anticipates using 2400 2.5 megawatt turbines for the 6000 megawatt SD facility estimated to supply electricity for 1.6 million homes.
- As the project develops, Clipper may perfect larger turbines. It is working on a 7.5 megawatt offshore model.
- Thune has measures in the energy bill specifying corridors for new transmission.
The US’ most efficient wind farm is an FPL facility w/27 turbines (40 megawatts) near Highmore, 60 miles east of Pierre.
- Wind accounts forless than 1% of US electricity but has the potential to provide 20-30% of it.

But to grow wind energy, a state must invest in transmission. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Gates, for Clipper: "I think each stage would eclipse the size of the previous one…To do big-time wind, you need to put in upgraded and new transmission capabilities…"
- Thune: "They know that we have an unlimited resource…South Dakota is the windiest state in the nation. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated that South Dakota has enough wind potential to provide 55 percent of all the electrical needs in the country."
- Thune, on new transmission corridors: "It would create an interstate highway for wind…Right now, we've got a transmission system that makes it difficult to get electricity from one area of the country to another. We need a corridor where you can easily move energy anywhere."
- Gates: "We've got to build electrical transmission lines to bring the energy from where it's windy, largely in the Great Plains, to where the people are…"