BISMARCK, N.D. -- Newly approved projects should push North Dakota's wind energy generating capacity to more than 1,000 megawatts, state regulators say. When the decade began, the state had no commercial wind power.

North Dakota's Public Service Commission on Wednesday approved construction of two wind developments that, when completed, will be capable of generating almost 300 megawatts of electricity - enough to satisfy a year's normal power demand for 240,000 homes.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative, of Bismarck, intends to build a 115-megawatt wind farm in Ward County in northwestern North Dakota, about 12 miles south of Minot.

In southeastern North Dakota, a subsidiary of Juno Beach, Fla.-based NextEra Energy Resources, plans to construct a 175-megawatt project in Dickey County, about 15 miles north of Ellendale.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Minot Air Force Base became involved in the Ward County project, Commissioner Tony Clark said.

Basin Electric's wind farm is within the normal migratory route of the whooping crane, an endangered species protected by federal law, and its territory includes a number of nuclear missile sites controlled by the Minot base. The base itself is about 13 miles north of Minot.

"We wanted to make sure ... that Basin, in developing this, was in close consultation with the Air Force base to ensure that any wind turbines weren't harming their mission," Clark said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service praised Basin's efforts to minimize the development's impact on whooping cranes, Clark said. The Dickey County project is outside the cranes' normal migratory flight path.

Kevin Cramer, the commission's chairman, said North Dakota now has turbines capable of generating a peak amount of 713 megawatts of electricity. In 2001, "we had nothing," Cramer said.

Basin's project will require 77 wind turbines, while the NextEra subsidiary, Rough Rider Wind I LLC, expects to put up 116 towers, commission documents say. Both projects are expected to be completed by early next year.

In recent years, North Dakota lawmakers have approved tax incentives for wind projects, and federal tax breaks have helped to spur development.

The American Wind Energy Association, a trade group, rates North Dakota as having the nation's greatest wind energy potential, although the state ranks only 13th in wind power output. Texas is No. 1, with more than 8,300 megawatts of wind power generation capacity.