Wind Power: Transmission Schmansmission -- Use It Here!

Talk wind power in South Dakota, and someone -- usually someone looking to make money -- will say, "Yeah, but, without transmission lines...." Evidently the big reason we don't have windmills popping up in every cornfield is that we could produce a heck of a lot more power than this state could ever use, and the big money folks are only interested in exporting power to the big markets. Without more transmission lines, that can't happen. The PUC's Gary Hanson will say so at a wind energy conference -- "Wind Energy & Transmission: The South Dakota Landscape" -- at the Sioux Falls Convention Center Thursday and Friday.

But why bother thinking of wind-generated electricity as an export product when we aren't anywhere close to producing our in-state needs? Maybe someday we'll be at that blessed point where we are producing more electricity than we know what to do with. For now, though, let's just work like crazy to get to that point. Forget powering Minneapolis; how about powering Madison, and Miner County? With wholesale power rates from the WAPA going up 25%, now is the perfect time to hook into some alternative energy sources.

Some SDSU engineering students are getting the idea. Working with officials from Charles Mix County, these students plan to spend next semester designing a 14-turbine, 21-megawatt wind farm that could cut the county's electric bill by 65% [AP, "Charles Mix Wind Project Has Interest," KELOLand.com, 2007.11.26]. I love it when homework turns into real public service!

The South Dakota Corn Growers are also looking at putting wind power to work here. They are meeting Monday with a Minnesota researcher to talk about harnessing wind power to produce cheaper anhydrous ammonia for fertilizer. "The thing that sticks out the most about this process," says Dr. Michael Reese of the University of Minnesota-Morris North Central Research and Outreach Center, "is we can produce a product locally to keep money within local economies" [Peter Harriman, "Wind Power Meetings Roll into Region," that Sioux Falls paper, 2007.11.28].

Local economies -- there's the magic word! Remember self-reliance, pioneer spirit, all that jazz? Let's get back to it! Those SDSU students and the corn growers can see that we don't need to wire all our wind power off to the big cities. We can put up wind turbines right next to our own towns and feedlots and factories and power our own operations for a lot cheaper than anyone else will sell us the power.

If we invest heavily now in wind power, we can become experts in the field. We can hook up every municipal power plant and ethanol plant, every city office and new housing development to a wind turbine, develop a skilled workforce that knows all about building and maintaining wind turbines in the toughest conditions, and save some money and pollution to boot. Then when South Dakota is humming along on 90% wind power (o.k., the wind won't blow every day), other states will look at us and say, "Oooo, can we have some?" Other states and big power companies will come a-calling with their transmission lines, and South Dakota will be in the perfect position to provide not just the juice but the expertise to make it flow.

As you lean into those 45-mile-per-hour gusts this afternoon, just think to yourself, Transmission schmansmission! Use the power here. Plug those turbines into the nearest town, cut South Dakota's electric bill in half, and lay the foundation for South Dakota to be the world leader in wind power production and engineering know-how.