Q&A: Mortenson’s Maag is bullish on wind power

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Golden Valley-based Mortenson has long played an active role in a renewable energy sector that’s been around — as the company points out — a lot longer than some people might think.

For proof, look no further than Mortenson’s own experience. Just last fall, Mortenson celebrated the 25th anniversary of its Wind Energy Group, which was launched in the mid-1990s with a “single wind turbine project in Iowa,” as the company has noted.

Mortenson’s wind portfolio has since grown to encompass 200 projects with 30,000 megawatts of energy, according to its website. This year, Mortenson expects to work on projects in Minnesota and more than a dozen other states.

Tim Maag, a 40-year Mortenson veteran, is the vice president and general manager of the company’s Wind Energy Group. Maag leads strategies around business growth and oversees preconstruction and construction of wind power facilities, according to his bio.

Maag is an active board member of the American Wind Energy Association and a past member of the Society of American Military Engineers. He previously managed the company’s Federal Contracting Group.

In the following interview, Maag talks about the past, present and future of Mortenson’s Wind Energy Group, the outlook for the wind sector writ large, and the PR hit that wind took following the deadly severe weather crisis in Texas, which left millions without power.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: I know that Mortenson has been a big player in the wind sector for quite some time. How many projects have you completed in Minnesota and across the country?

A: First of all, we are incredibly blessed to be in the wind energy space and to be a leader in the industry. It’s a great industry. It’s the right industry to be in and we have some absolutely amazing customers.

Most people don’t think that the wind industry has been around that long, but we’ve actually been in the wind industry now since 1995. And during that time, I think we have completed 23 projects in Minnesota and one repowering project.

So with the new wind and the repowering in Minnesota, that’s about 2,500 megawatts of wind that we’ve been fortunate to be a part of. And then when I think about the industry as a whole in that last 25 years, we’ve installed about 30,000 megawatts and that’s getting close to 200 individual projects. So it’s been a great run.

Q: You mentioned repowering. That’s kind of a new industry buzzword. Can you talk about repowering and what that entails?

A: When you think about the wind industry, some of the early projects were constructed in some of the absolute best wind resources. Some of those facilities are coming up on 15, 20, 25 years old. So repowering really became popular starting back in probably 2017, where we would go in and really upgrade the facility by sometimes putting on a larger rotor or maybe updating the generator and putting a new gearbox. And that’s really going to increase the output of the facility and renew its life, if you will, well, well into the future. So we started getting into that with our customers back in 2017. And I think we are somewhere around 23 or 24 projects that we’ve repowered.

Q: Do you see that as a real growth area in the sector?

A: I do, for the reasons we talked about earlier, where some of the earlier sites have the best wind resource and they’re already interconnected to the grid. So it’s just great to continue that.

Q: What is your overall outlook for wind in 2021 and beyond?

A: I’m an optimist when it comes to renewables, but I’m very bullish on the wind industry. We’re just coming off of back-to-back years, 2019 and 2020, where they were just watershed years for us in terms of revenue and megawatts installed. And 2021 won’t be as robust as 2020, but it will still be a very, very good year. I think in 2020, we worked on 23 or 24 projects. In 2021, we’re going to be working on about 14 to 15 projects, including repower, and we’re going to be working in I think 14 different states … pretty much from coast to coast. It will be spread across the country in 2021, so it’s going to be a good year.

Q: Any particular projects here in Minnesota that you can highlight?

A: We just finished a project in Minnesota last fall, called Nobles, for ALLETE Clean Energy and Tenaska. And then in 2021, later this year, we hope to start a repowering project for Xcel, repowering the original Nobles project.

Q: What are some of the barriers or challenges facing the industry?

A: If I think of headwinds, my mind usually goes right to available transmission: lines and interconnect points to tie the renewable power in. As you know, some of the best wind resources aren’t necessarily located right by some of the biggest load centers, so transmission is probably the biggest constraint for us.

Q: As you know, wind power has come under scrutiny of late given what’s happened with the recent severe weather in Texas and the massive power outages. Images of frozen wind turbines are making the rounds on social media and news sites. What is your reaction to that?

A: First of all, they are studying this and they’ll figure out exactly what the issues were and what took place. Now, you’re right, wind unfortunately and unfairly came under scrutiny. And it’s unfortunate that when you have an event like we did in Texas that it becomes political.

I thought the American Clean Power Association did a good job of responding to that. And, again, I think what we need to do is let ERCOT [the Electric Reliability Council of Texas] study it, come out with the facts, and then deal with facts.

It’s a very unfortunate situation. And when I think about it, the linemen and utilities down there did a remarkable job. And there’s a lot of people that worked in some very unfortunate weather conditions to restore power as quickly as they possibly could. My gratitude and appreciation goes out to those folks that did everything they could to restore the power.

Q: From what I understand there were failures across the board with the gas plants and other sources.

A: Absolutely. You know, wind turbines operate in all sorts of conditions. You’re from Minnesota and you’ve seen 20-plus below weather days and you see turbines that are operating then. Wind turbines do have a cold weather package that can be installed to make them operate in some of the most severe conditions out there. So if some of the turbines in Texas don’t have that cold weather package, that’s a pretty easy fix.

Q: Does that tie in with the repowering activity we talked about?

A: I would say repowering is quite a bit different. Really, the cold weather package, I think, could be easily installed just through the normal, routine maintenance of the turbines.

Q: It looks like there’s a strong future for all renewables, including wind.

A: Yeah, absolutely. I get very bullish and I think we’re heading in the right directions with respect to renewables here in the United States.

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