• News Releases
• Annual Report
• Associated Publications

Cooperatives lead in wind power development

There are many complicated issues involved with developing wind farms in South Dakota. However, who is responsible for commercial wind turbine development in South Dakota and North Dakota is not complicated. Rural electric cooperatives are making it happen!

Working together, electric cooperatives are involved in the development and marketing of electricity from 93 utility-size wind turbines in the region. South Dakota's Touchstone Energy Cooperatives are the only utilities so far to harness windpower on a commercial scale in this state.

While others shoot the breeze about potential wind farms, electric co-ops:

• developed the first four commercial-size wind turbines in the Dakotas, two at Chamberlain, S.D. in 2001 and two more at Minot, N.D. in 2002.
• partnered with FPL Energy to develop a pair of 27-turbine wind farms at Highmore, S.D. and Edgeley, N.D. in 2003 by agreeing to purchase the output of the projects.
• contracted again with FPL to purchase the generation from the 33-unit Wilton, N.D. Wind Farm, which came on line in January.
• are purchasing the output from 21 customer-owned small wind turbines.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative generates and purchases most of the power East River Electric delivers to 21 local distribution systems in eastern South Dakota and western Minnesota. Basin is ranked eighth in the nation in renewable energy sales, according to federal reports. In 2005, Basin's wind energy sales totaled enough electricity to serve 8,000 average homes.

Rural Electrics are developing renewable resources without legislative mandates! During Basin Electric's 2005 annual meeting, their cooperative owners approved a voluntary renewable energy goal: to provide 10 percent of consumers needs for electricity from renewables by 2010. Currently, electric cooperative customers in eastern South Dakota and western Minnesota receive approximately 8 percent of their energy from wind turbines. We are well on our way towards this goal.

When you add 8 percent wind to our 30 percent power supply from Missouri River hydropower, more than 35 percent of the electricity supplied to cooperative customers is generated by renewable, environmentally-friendly resources.

In addition, Touchstone Energy Cooperatives are working with partners on new environmentally-responsible resources, such as methane digester-powered generators, fueled by animal waste from livestock operations. Also, waste-heat-recovery generators are being installed at four compressor stations along the Northern Border Pipeline in the Dakotas to produce electricity with "zero emissions."

These renewable resources could not be integrated into our power supply without support from Western Area Power Administration. Western's jointly-owned transmission system, which delivers Missouri River hydropower and supplemental power to electric cooperatives and municipal utilities in the region, works well and helps keep electric rates low. Using these constrained transmission lines for new purposes, such as delivering “green power” from new wind farms to distant markets, creates a multitude of challenges to this complex electric grid.

This region's cooperative leadership believes efforts to harness the vast wind resources must be balanced with the practical responsibility to deliver reliable, affordable electricity to customers. Wind developments must be economically-viable projects and help meet customers' high expectations for reliable service.

With a rapidly growing demand for electricity in cooperative territory, we definitely need more domestic energy resources. Wind is an intermittent source of power and is part of the solution, when the winds blow. The nation also needs a rational transmission policy, which opens new transmission capacity for wind, other renewables and proven resources -- like coal-based generation. And, we will continue to look for opportunities to integrate renewables into the electric cooperatives' power delivery system to benefit our customers and the rural economy.