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Herseth Sandlin visits Wessington Springs wind farm
August 21, 2008 | By CHUCK CLEMENT, Madison Daily Leader

U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin met with the general manager of Heartland Consumers Power District and other business people Wednesday afternoon at the Wessington Springs site where workers are erecting 34 new wind turbine generators.

Wednesday was a big day for wind-energy supporters in South Dakota; the topic was an important subject of debate between Herseth Sandlin and her opponent, Chris Lien of Rapid City, at DakotaFest in Mitchell. In addition, U.S. Sen. John Thune and T. Boone Pickens, a Texas billionaire, met in Rapid City for a rally that supported the "Pickens Plan," an energy development program that involves wind energy.

Mike McDowell, HCPD general manager, said Herseth Sandlin spent about two hours at the Wessington Springs site where a work crew has started erecting windmill towers.

"She had an intense interest in what was going on there," McDowell said. "She saw the footprint of the project and asked a great deal of questions about the generation site."

Ray Garcia, project manager for Babcock & Brown, an Australian energy company, spoke to the group about developing wind power in general. HCPD signed a renewable energy purchase agreement in April 2007 with Babcock & Brown that committed the district to purchase the entire electrical output of the production plant.

Called the Wessington Springs Wind Project, the electrical plant will operate 34 General Electric wind turbines each with an output of 1.5 megawatts. The plant's total output of 51 megawatts could provide enough power for 15,000 homes per year. The estimated total cost for the project is $50 million.

Construction work wasn't under way on Wednesday due to strong winds. McDowell said about 50 percent of the materials needed to assemble the towers, turbines and windmill blades are already at the generation site.

"In fact, we saw a turbine on its way into the site for delivery when we were leaving," McDowell said.

According to McDowell, current plans have the Wessington Springs wind farm starting production on Nov. 30.

Earlier this month, Scott Parsley of East River Electric Power Cooperative announced that the 27-turbine wind farm near Highmore was the most productive plant of its type in the nation, producing maximum generation 42 percent of the time. McDowell said that the Wessington Springs site -- which is about 70 miles southeast of Highmore -- could produce, at its maximum output, 50 percent of the time.

"The wind resources are more concentrated there than at any other area of the state," McDowell said.

Wind energy has grown into the favored child of progressive politicians this election year with business people from Texas to Australia promoting the expansion of wind-generated electricity production in South Dakota and the rest of the U.S.

According to energy industry watchers, Pickens, who became wealthy in the oil industry, has invested about $2 billion in building a wind farm in the Texas panhandle that will operate hundreds of wind turbines. The entire project is projected to cost between $10 billion and $12 billion to construct a 4,000-megawatt electrical plant.

Babcock & Brown purchased seven Midwest wind-energy projects in January 2008 from other companies. The Australian company also operates 20 other wind farms in nine states.

Production tax credits remain as one of the key components to the development of wind energy, but they are scheduled to expire in December. The federal government has provided tax credits of 2 cents per kilowatt-hour to the wind-energy industry. The tax credits had expired three times before, in 1999, 2001 and 2003, and industry officials have said that construction suffered following the expirations until the tax credits were reintroduced.

Herseth Sandlin indicated on Wednesday that an extension of the wind-energy tax credit looked favorable, McDowell said.

According to McDowell, the Wessington Springs wind farm had already provided an economic benefit to Heartland. Earlier this year, HCPD sold its "green tags," or carbon offsets related to the project, for three times their projected initial value. McDowell said that wind-generated energy will provide a significant portion of Heartland's business in the future.

"From our standpoint, Heartland will have renewable energy as 20 percent of its production portfolio," he said.

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