Wind powers community development

by Luann Dart

Carol Goodman is a key indifibual who helped pitch Cavalier county as the ideal place or energy development (PHOTO BY JC BALCOM)

Placing a wind monitoring tower northwest of Nekoma in January 2006 was Cavalier County’s act of faith that wind development would blow its way.

“It was at a time when there wasn’t a whole lot of activity in the industry, but we’d been told we had to have a couple years of data before being approached by wind developers,” explains Carol Goodman, executive director of the Cavalier County Job Development Authority (JDA), which placed the tower to gather wind velocity data. “There were some local folks interested in pursuing it.” The JDA funded half of the $20,000 cost of the tower, using a $10,000 matching grant from the N.D. Department of Commerce Division of Community Services to fund the other half.

The county’s foresight, coupled with an active interest in wind power by the state’s electric cooperatives, led to the development of the Langdon Wind Energy Center, which includes 106 wind turbines spinning like pinwheels on the prairie southeast of Langdon, imprinting the area’s economy and enhancing the region’s power supply.

The $250 million project is a prime example of cooperation between electric cooperatives, landowners and community developers.

“The Langdon Wind Energy Center is much more than just the most recent wind farm to bring clean, renewable energy to North Dakota,” FPL Energy’s Senior Vice President of Development Mike O’Sullivan told those attending the project’s dedication in May. “This project is a demonstration of people bringing their skills, knowledge and commitment together to make something good happen. Many people worked on this project, and the result is a facility of which we can all be proud.”

“This area offers robust wind, adequate transmission facilities and, most important, welcoming landowners and an appreciative community,” David Loer, president and chief executive officer of Minnkota Power Cooperative, added during the dedication.

A cooperative venture
 As the JDA’s wind monitoring tower quietly captured wind data, Minnkota Power Cooperative, headquartered in Grand Forks, was looking for more wind power to enhance its renewable energy portfolio. The generation and transmission cooperative supplies wholesale electricity to 11 distribution cooperatives serving eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota.
“Our customers wanted us to put in wind power and also the renewable energy standards in Minnesota and the North Dakota objectives were starting to be talked about,” explains Al Tschepen, vice president of planning and system operations with Minnkota Power.

Minnesota mandates that 25 percent of the power supply for Minnesota customers comes from renewables by 2025. North Dakota’s objective is 10 percent by 2015.

“We hope to meet that by the end of 2009,” Tschepen says.

The market conditions were also prime for adding more wind energy, he explains. “At the time, market conditions would support the cost of adding wind. Up to that time, it had been the other way around where the cost of wind power was considerably higher to market. It’s not that wind came down, but it’s that the market went up.”

So, Minnkota Power began working with FPL Energy to develop additional wind power.
That’s when a phone call between Cavalier Rural Electric Cooperative’s manager, Duane Otto, and Minnkota Power’s Dave Loer confirmed the presence of the JDA’s monitoring tower. And, yes, FPL was interested in that data.

“FPL Energy knew it was a pretty good area, but they didn’t have the historical wind data that Carol was able to provide,” Tschepen said. Data showed the area had a 40-42 percent wind capacity factor.

In the fall of 2007, construction on the site began as a joint project between FPL Energy, Minnkota Power and Otter Tail Power Company.

The Langdon Wind Energy Center is capable of generating enough electricity to power nearly 40,000 homes, or 159 megawatts (MW). Initial operation of the 106 wind turbines began in December 2007, with Minnkota Power purchasing 99 MW. Otter Tail owns 27, or 40.5 MW, of the center’s turbines. FPL Energy owns the remainder of the turbines and operates the entire wind farm. All of the remaining output is sold to Minnkota and Otter Tail under long-term contracts. FPL Energy plans to build an additional 40.5 MW, or 27 turbines, this fall, bringing the total size of the project to 199.5 MW.

“Since we’re just the off-taker, our focus was on building the transmission lines to incorporate the power into our grid,” Tschepen says. “The actual wind farm development was handled entirely by FPL Energy.”

Minnkota Power, in partnership with Otter Tail Power Company, rebuilt 35 miles of transmission line from Langdon to Hensel, upgrading it from 41 kilovolts to 115 kilovolts, which took about six months to complete.

Cavalier Electric assisted by installing electric service at the collector substation, providing construction power and with locating underground power lines. The entire project took only six months.

“That’s a lot of power to develop in six months,” Otto says. “Everything went well. It was well-organized.”

Powering the economy
The JDA’s act of faith has certainly had an impact on the area’s economy.
“It impacted us in a very positive way,” Goodman says.

“It’s been good for the area and it’s been good for the members of Cavalier Electric and it’s good for the area for economic benefits,” Otto says. “It’s been well-accepted by the community and the public.”

“(Construction) had a real impact on the retail and service businesses as well as the hospitality services,” Goodman says. “The hotels were full and the restaurants were busy.”

One significant measure of the wind center’s impact is the increase in sales tax revenues.
Cavalier County’s 2007 fourth quarter taxable sales and purchases increased 28.87 percent over 2006, while the community of Langdon recorded an increase of 31.05 percent.

From 10-12 permanent, well-paying jobs were added to the community and an estimated $300,000 in property taxes have been added to the county and school district budgets. And landowners lease their property to FPL Energy, another economic benefit.

One landowner, Keith Lorenz, who lives southeast of Langdon, has five towers on his land; four towers are on his father’s property.

While Lorenz had concerns when he first heard about the development, his qualms have been eased.

“I went on the Internet real fast when I first started hearing about it and I looked up wind energy,” he says. He found blogs from other farmers who have worked with FPL Energy and didn’t find any negative comments.

His concerns about drainage and roads being built across his property have been addressed, he says. The 32-foot-wide roads to each tower are level with the land, so he can simply drive right across the road when planting or harvesting.

“There’s nothing to it; it went a lot slicker than I thought it would. It’s a little scary when you first look at it, you’re kind of intimidated,” Lorenz says.

As cement and gravel trucks used the road near Lorenz’s farm, FPL Energy watered the road so his farmyard wouldn’t get dusty. Company trucks were respectful of harvest equipment moving down the road at the same time and FPL Energy even graveled one of the roads, the first time it’s ever been graveled, Lorenz says.

“FPL is a very fine company,” says Lorenz, who grows wheat, barley, flax and canola.
“It’s been good,” Otto says. “The consumer-members and the public have been very satisfied with the project. They like to see the towers.”

“Everybody gripes about the wind, but all of a sudden it certainly has a value,” Goodman says with a laugh.

And on a bright, sunny day, those pinwheels on the prairie remind Cavalier County of its simple act of faith.

Luann Dart is an Elgin-based writer and editor.