The North Dakota Public Service Commission on Monday approved the permits for a wind farm and associated power line set to be built in central North Dakota.
NextEra Energy Resources' $345 million Oliver Wind IV project would have the capacity to generate 200 megawatts of electricity that would be sent on a $45 million 19-mile transmission line from the project's location in Oliver County to the Leland Olds Power Station owned by Basin Electric Power Cooperative in Mercer County.
The project adds to NextEra's already large portfolio of wind farms both in the local area and the state.
Florida-based NextEra is one of North Dakota's largest wind power producers. Wind farms in the state owned by the company can generate around 1,615 megawatts of North Dakota's total wind capacity of 4,300 megawatts -- or about 40%.Â
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Other nearby NextEra wind projects include the Oliver I, II and III facilities which collectively generate around 200 megawatts themselves, according to a fact sheet from Wind Industry of North Dakota, a trade group.
The power from Oliver IV would feed into the Southwest Power Pool, which is a regional transmission organization that helps balance the electrical grid through buying and selling power. The electricity itself would be paid for by Verizon Wireless, a practice that companies increasingly employ to offset their emissions and reach clean energy goals.
Commission Chair Randy Christmann noted some misgivings with the project on Monday but ultimately joined the other two commissioners in voting to approve it since all the requirements were met.
"People who actually reside within the footprint are very close to it. You can't live in or very near a proposed development like this without sensing opinions and I definitely believe that most people who are going to live within this area do not want it," he said. "Some are under pressure from nonresident landlords (and) do not say anything because landlords want it, some are even unenthusiastic project participants but once they saw their home was going to be mostly surrounded, they decided they might as well get paid and so technically they are participants."
At a hearing for the project in January, he questioned whether the wind power would displace other forms of power on the grid, eventually making it uneconomic to run them. He also said the project was "essentially just greenwashing" since Verizon is not directly using the power for its operations. The term is used to describe actions that companies take to appear as if they are benefiting the environment, while having little, or an ultimately harmful impact.
"After many hours of contemplation I cannot say that the adverse impacts to the grid are clear enough to deny this project and in the case of electric transmission and conversion facilities -- unlike pipeline siting -- the Legislature has continued to keep a lot of focus on local control through local ordinances and in this case (Oliver) County seems to look very favorable at this," Christmann said.
NextEra's project would include up to 73 turbines. At the hearing in January, company representatives testified that all but five landowners located in the wind farm's 22,000-acre area had signed contracts and all but four had signed easement agreements for the transmission line to cross their land.
NextEra on Monday did not immediately provide the Tribune with an update on landowner agreements.
The company on Tuesday said in a statement it was pleased with the approval.
"The Oliver Wind IV project will bring numerous economic benefits to the community, including approximately $35 million in additional tax revenue which can be used to enhance schools, roads and essential services. Additionally, this project will provide local farmers with more than $84 million to support their family farms," the company said.
Construction is set to be complete this December, commissioners said.
More local labor is expected to be used on the construction of Oliver IV compared to recent wind farms.
At the January hearings, the LIUNA Minnesota and North Dakota labor union announced it had entered into an agreement with the company to come up with a plan for hiring more local workers. A union representative testified that its estimates of local labor used on two recent North Dakota wind power projects was about 10%, compared with 40-60% on NextEra projects in Minnesota. Numbers were obtained through counting license plates at job sites.
Neither LIUNA nor NextEra provided immediate comment on the plan to the Tribune on Monday.