New Minnesota Wind Farm Under Construction

One of the biggest wind farms in Minnesota is expected to be online by the end of the year. Currently under construction near Harwick in the southern part of the state, the facility will feature 119 GE 1.68-megawatt turbines and generate approximately 200 megawatts of electricity. The project, with an estimated cost of $305 million, is a joint venture between GE and Enel Green Power, an Italian multinational energy corporation. Once completed, the wind farm will supply all of its power to Northern States Power Company, a subsidiary of Xcel Energy, under a 20-year contract. Read more...

Minnkota Wins DOE Award

The U.S. Department of Energy's Wind Program, through its Wind Powering America initiative, announced that Minnkota Power Cooperative has received the 2010 Wind Cooperative of the Year Award. The award was presented at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) TechAdvantage Conference in Orlando, Florida. This 10th annual award honors the North Dakota-based NRECA member for its outstanding leadership, innovation, project creativity and benefits to customers resulting from North Dakota's first utility-owned wind turbine and its other investments wind power. The cooperative was selected for the honor from a group of eight nominees nationwide. Read more...

South Dakota Wind Farm Completed

North Dakota-based Basin Electric has announced that the last turbine of the $363-million Crow Lake Wind Project just east of Chamberlain, S.D., was commissioned Feb. 27 and the entire project is now fully operational. Read more...

Modular Wind Tower Under Development

A Nebraska company is designing a wind tower that can be build in panel sections and transported on standard flatbed trucks. The company, NorthStar Wind of Blair, Neb., says their design will reduce the transport logistics of wind farm construction by up to 70%. Commercial production is expected to begin in 2012. Read more...

Saskatchewan Wind Project to Test Battery Storage

The Canadian government has selected two wind projects to receive funds from the ecoENERGY for Renewable Power program, a series of investments totaling up to C$63.8 million to support renewable and clean energy. The first project is a 99 MW wind farm in Nova Scotia that will receive up to C$9.2 million. The second is a wind storage demonstration project that will receive C$2.79 million to test battery storage technology connected to a wind turbine in Saskatchewan. Read more...

Nebraska Wind Farm Completed

Colorado-based Renewable Energy Systems Americas Inc. and Gestamp Wind North America, a subsidiary of Gestamp Renewables and Banco Santander, S.A. of Spain, have announced the completion of Flat Water Wind Project in southern Nebraska's Richardson County and Kansas' Nemaha County. Flat Water Wind Project is a 60 megawatt (MW) project consisting of 40 1.5 MW GE wind turbines. Read more...

Illinois WInd Energy Update

The Center for Renewable Energy at Illinois State University has predicted that Illinois could become the fourth largest state in wind energy production this year. Researchers say current projections show Texas, Iowa, California, Minnesota and Illinois at the top of the list for wind energy in the U.S, with Illinois projected to have a total of 2,435.4 megawatts of wind energy installed by the end of the third quarter of 2011.

The difference in installed capacity between Illinois and Minnesota by the third quarter is projected to be 58.6 megawatts, and Illinois resaerchers say delays in Minnesota’s upcoming wind farm developments could result in Illinois moving up to the number four spot in wind energy production. The state currently produces between four and five percent of its total energy output with wind and is ranked number severn nationally in total wind energy production. Read more...

ND House Votes Down Wind Rights Sharing Bill

The North Dakota House has rejected a proposal to require income sharing from wind energy projects. Currently, property owners who host wind turbines receive a percentage of power sales revenue as well as land rent. The bill defeated today would have required neighboring landowners to also receive payments if they lost a chance to host wind turbines on their property. The bill also would have required payments to landowners within a half-mile of a wind turbine as compensation for noise and the loss of a scenic view.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Wind-rights-sharing-rule-apf-732739714.html?x=0&.v=1

USDA Announces Loan Guarantee for SD Wind Farm

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9, 2011 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the selection of Basin Electric Power Cooperative to receive a loan guarantee to construct over 100 wind turbines to produce 151.5 megawatts of electricity. When completed the turbines will join the cooperative's other electric generation projects to meet the needs of 2.8 million customers served by 135 distribution systems in nine states. The loan guarantee will provide financing for engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning of the PrairieWinds wind farm energy project in central South Dakota.

Read more...

Iowa Mulls Green Energy Subsidies

Democrats in the Iowa Legislature have proposed a package of incentives that would provide tax rebates to businesses and homeowners who install certain alternative energy systems. The $10 million plan focuses on small solar or wind energy systems and would give homeowners rebates up to $3,000 and businesses up to $15,000. Sponsors say the measure would provide $4 million to homeowners, enough for 1,300 projects, and $6 million for businesses, enough for 400 projects.

http://news.ino.com/headlines/?newsid=68976971747400

UM-Morris Green Power Update

According to an article this week in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the University of Minnesota at Morris is making significant progress towards its goal of being a carbon neutral campus. According to the article, the school has erected a wind turbine that provides about 60 percent of its electricity and has a second turbine on order. A biomass gasifier was built that turns corn cobs and prairie grass pellets into energy, enough to provide nearly half the campus' heating. Supplemental energy is provided by 32 solar panels installed around the school, which predicts it will be producing more power than it uses sometime this year.

http://www.startribune.com/local/115613614.html

Report Says WInd Power Competitive with Coal

According to a new report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, wind energy has become cost-competitive with coal in some regions due largely to falling prices. According to Bloomberg, the cost per megawatt for turbines was about $1.33 million last year, which is 19 percent less than in 2007. The report says that in parts of the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Sweden, the overall cost of wind power is now $68/MWh, while coal power costs $67/MWh. Cheaper still is natural gas at $56/MWh.

http://www.grist.org/article/2011-02-07-report-wind-power-now-competitive-with-coal-in-some-regions

New Iowa Wind Farm Proposed

Chicago-based PNE Wind USA is planning to build a 30-megawatt farm in southeast Iowa by 2013. The 10-turbine facility would be the first wind project in Johnson County and one of the few in the southeastern part of the state. The vast majority of Iowa's wind energy is produced in the western and central regions where the pace of construction in recent years has increased the state's existing wind capacity ranking to number two, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20110208/NEWS01/102080316/1079/

Minnesota Wind Farm Goes Online

The Bent Tree Wind Farm near Albert Lea, Minn.. has begun generating electricity, according to project developer Wisconsin Power & Light Co.  The $460 million project consists of 122 turbines capable of generating up to 201 megawatts of power. Wisconsin's renewable electricity mandate requires that 10% of the state's electricity come from renewable sources by 2015.

http://www.jsonline.com/business/115531459.html

Wind Siting Bill Passed by ND Senate

The North Dakota Senate voted unanimously on Tuesday to give the North Dakota Public Service Commission siting power over wind projects capable of generating more than one-half megawatt of electricity. The present law restricts the commission's siting authority to projects that can generate more than 60 megawatts. The bill, SB2196, will now be reviewed by the House.

 

http://www.bismarcktribune.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/2011_session/article_f4a00d9e-2e81-11e0-a2d6-001cc4c002e0.html

Iowa Wind Industry Slows Down

The wind energy industry in Iowa is experiencing many of the same difficulties that has slowed expansion across the country, according to a recent report.  Reduced electricity demand, cheaper natural gas, tighter lending policies and the lack of a clear federal  policy all combined to create a significant slowdown in the pace of new U.S. turbine installations in 2010.

In Iowa, roughly 10 gigawatts of wind-generated power were added in 2008 and 2009. In 2010, the amount is expected to less than half that amount when the totals are compiled.

http://thegazette.com/2011/01/30/business380-iowa-wind-energy-industry-expected-to-see-slow-recovery/

New WInd Farms Proposed for Southern Nebraska

Green Capital Power of Lincoln, Neb. pitched the idea of wind farm development to the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners during the group’s regularly scheduled meeting yesterday. An official from the company said Green Capital Power hopes to generate interest in the southern part of Nebraska and expand to other areas of the Midwest in the longer term. The board did not vote on the matter but agreed to take it under consideration. Read more...

ND Wind Company Gets New Investor

Phoenix-based NACEL Energy Corporation has announced an agreement to purchase two share blocks of Crownbutte Wind Power, Inc. of  Mandan, ND.  The deal makes NACEL the largest shareholder of Crownbutte, which reportedly has several wind projects in various stages of development in the Dakotas and Montana. Read more...

Minnesota Moves to #4 in Wind

New figures provided by the American Wind Energy Association show that Minnesota is now the nation's number four producer of wind energy. The state's Elm Creek II, Nobles and Ridgewind projects together accounted for 275 MW of installed capacity in 2010, or about 5% of the total growth in the U.S. Read more...

Wind/Solar Conference Set for Iowa

Iowa State University Extension in Plymouth County, along with other partner organizations, is presenting a Wind/Solar Energy Conference on Wednesday, March 2 in Le Mars. Speakers from the Iowa Energy Center, USDA Rural Development and Iowa State University will address various topics concerning wind and solar energy, including financing, legal considerations, and planning and zoning. Read more...