Despite significant potential, the South Dakota wind industry isn't particularly well developed. But it has positioned itself to make major leaps.
During the last legislative session, the state passed a law that exempted all commercial-scale wind projects from property taxes. Instead, producers will pay a tax ($3 per kilowatt) on generating capacity as well as 2 percent on gross receipts.
This has kick-started a number of projects just since July, including a proposal for a 225-megawatt farm on Lower Brule Sioux Tribe lands and groundbreaking for a 50-megawatt farm in Brookings County. Dakota Wind Energy also publicly sought out landowners in the northeastern corner of the state for a multistage, 750-megawatt project.
But all of these will be overshadowed if a granddaddy project ever comes to fruition. Clipper Windpower had announced some time ago its interest in developing a 1,550-megawatt wind farm in South Dakota. Then this summer, the company announced it had entered a partnership with BP Alternative Energy to develop the original project and to tack on an additional and contiguous 3,500 megawatts of power in a multiphase development. If completed, it would be the world's largest wind project.
—Ronald A. Wirtz
