KJAM reports that the Wessington Springs Wind Project has begun construction. The press release from Heartland Consumers Power District says the wind farm will be online later this year, with ultimately 34 wind turbines cranking out 51 megawatts, enough juice for 15,000 homes. General manager Mike McDowell says the Wessington Springs Wind Project will provide 20% of Heartland's power supply.
The only downside here: we had to get a foreign company, Babcock & Brown, to do the financing. But at least someone's willing to get in front of the curve and finance wind power in South Dakota, transmission lines be darned.
And about transmission: again, think of this: 34 wind turbines cranking out power for 15,000 homes. That's 441 homes per turbine. Lake County has... what, maybe 5,000 homes? Imagine if we put up 12 turbines her in Lake County. 12 windmills in the windiest parts of the county (like the west side of Lake Herman... or City Hall!), and every resident gets power made right here at home. Forward Madison... to self-sufficiency!
Sounds good. We must remember that wind turbines only work when the wind is blowing. That's often enough in South Dakota, but not all the time.
ReplyDeleteHybrid wind and solar, along with more traditional sources, and a gradual phase-out of coal, oil, and gas-derived electricity ... that should be the goal.
Self-sufficiency: Another excellent idea for the long term. But then, perhaps in theoretical terms only; we wouldn't want to be isolationists, would we?
Not much of a day for sun or wind here in the Black Hills. Maybe if the force of falling rain could be harnessed ... or those rushing streams ... I am an advocate of technological as well as geographical diversity for the energy infrastructure. More secure, more reliable, and less likely to be brought completely down by natural or human-made disasters.
As I see it, the main obstacle to all this is a general lack of public will. That may change, however, in the coming years. South Dakota is a good place to be.
Interesting that you mention isolationism. Self-sufficiency doesn't require isolationism (or xenophobia) as its motivation. In the coming world of $200-a-barrel oil, self-sufficiency can be a simple matter of pragmatism. The U.S. should still engage with the world; we just have to recognize that it will be a lot more expensive to do so. Oil dependency forces us to engage with the world on bad terms (we need oil, so we better go crack some skulls). Self-sufficiency would give us breathing room to engage with the world less out of necessity (which leads to coddling petro-dictators) and more out of principle.
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