Herseth Sandlin Tours Wind Farm

Posted on Friday, August 22, 2008

U.S. Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin toured the Wessington Springs Wind Project on Wednesday. Herseth Sandlin was escorted by staff from Babcock & Brown, the wind energy development firm financing the Wessington Springs Project, as well as officials from Heartland Consumers Power District of Madison. General Manager Mike McDowell and Manager of Community Development and South Dakota District 8 Representative Russell Olson.

McDowell said that Herseth Sandlin's visit was a good indication of the strong bipartisan support South Dakota has from its Congressional delegation for the development of South Dakota's wind resources.

Herseth Sandlin spent nearly two hours at the project site. She says Congress has to make some tough decisions soon, including renewing the production tax credit, providing certainty and stability for planning of wind projects, and also looking at the authorities that are going to be necessary to address the transmission issues.

The Wessington Springs Wind Project consists of 34 General Electric 1.5 MW wind turbines with a total production capacity of 51 MW, enough to power approximately 15,000 homes per year. The total project cost is estimated at $50 million.

Construction of the wind farm began this spring. All 34 cement bases are in the ground, five sites had portions of the turbine towers erected, and 50% of all the turbine components had been delivered. The projects two substations will be energized in October and project officials anticipate a mid-November commercial operation date.

The project will be used as a network resource for Heartland, and will also initially serve as the sole source of renewable power supplied to two major South Dakota universities, per a Memorandum of Understanding between Heartland and the state of South Dakota. With the wind farms generation, renewable resources will account for 20% of Heartlands power supply.