Wind Farm Near Center

North Dakota is leading the push for more renewable energy sources Today developers of the Oliver County wind farm near Center are dedicating the fifty-four towers Brad Feldman shows us why this dedication ceremony might just be the beginnig of what s to come Sound-wind It s North Dakota s abundant natural resource This is why Florida Power and Light and Minnesota Power is making a major investment into these gentle giants John Didonato Florida Power amp amp Light By the end of 2008 we will have invested one billion dollars in wind development in the state of North Dakota Wind towers are changing the landscape of North Dakota What once was rolling prairies is now an energy generation station The wind farm near Center produces about one hundred megawatts of energy And plans are in the works to increase this number by as much as ten times John Didonato Florida Power and Light We ve got one hundred thousand acres of land optioned right now So we believe this area can handle another one thousand megawatts of wind and we hope to be the ones to build that F-P-L is working with Minnesota Power to do just that The third phase of this wind farm is already on the drawing board But even before more wind towers go up the two companies will be working on adding transmission lines to allow for the increased energy generated Don Shippar Minnesota Power Minkota is going to add significant more transmission capacity in North Dakota which will then free up capacity in the existing transmission line that goes back to Minnesota Therefore that will allow us to move more wind energy on that line back to northern Minnesota Shippar says he sees a time in the near future when Minnesota Power invests in another four hundred megawatts of wind energy in North Dakota He says its enough energy to serve about a quarter of a million people Not to mention the benefit the additional wind towers would bring to the small communities in the area Brad Feldman KX News Shippar says the next phase of the Oliver County wind farm will likely go near the BNI Mine Site He says right now they are putting up instruments to find the right spots to put up wind towers