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Renewable Projects Move Forward

Three renewable projects that East River and its member systems are currently helping to develop were reviewed during the February Board Meeting.

The first, the Local Wind Initiative, East River’s request for Basin Electric participation in this initiative, was confirmed in January. Basin has agreed to a 10.5 MW expansion to the Crow Lake Wind Farm that will be constructed and developed concurrent with the existing Crow Lake Wind Farm and owned by a new entity, provisionally named South Dakota Wind Partners, LLC.

Sponsorship has been secured for launching South Dakota Wind Partners from the South Dakota Farm Bureau, South Dakota Farmers Union, and the South Dakota Corn Growers, along with East River. The initial Board of Directors of the South Dakota Wind Partners is expected to be in place by mid-February.

The South Dakota Wind Partners will target not later than Sept. 15 to activate its ownership role. Key steps which are underway include finalizing contracts with Basin for the project’s development and purchase of the output, preparation of an investment ‘offering circular’ and securing as many as 1,000 South Dakotans as investors in this project.

The second renewable project involves the prospect of Mitchell Technical Institute purchasing one of the 1.5 MW turbines which will be constructed as part of Basin’s Crow Lake Wind Farm.

East River has played an instrumental role in helping MTI create an opportunity to acquire the turbine to enhance its windsmithing program. In the middle of last year, Central Electric requested and the REED board agreed to provide a loan for up to $900,000 to be repaid from revenues which would be generated by MTI’s sale of the output of this one turbine to Basin Electric.

MTI has also pursued grant funding for the bulk of the funding for acquisition of this turbine. However, to date, they have not been successful in this effort. MTI President Greg Von Wald enlisted help from South Dakota Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin, whom we are pleased to report, agreed to identify this project during a meeting she had on Jan. 11 with the newly appointed Administrator of the Economic Development Administration. Reports from this meeting suggest a renewed interest in the possibility to advance this project.

Finally, East River has been working with Basin Electric and Kingsbury Electric to evaluate the prospect of installing a bio-digester which would produce methane and drive turbine generation for as much as 1.5 MW of base load generation associated with the Redstone Feeders’ 7,000 head feedlot, served by Kingsbury Electric.

The Basin Board, at its January meeting, designated a larger bio-digester prospect in the NIPCO service area, along with Redstone Feeders, as two pilot projects be further explored to test the economic, technical and business viability of these carbon-free base load generation installations.