Consolidated Edison Development wants to provide electricity from wind turbines and be paid $60.70 per megawatt-hour. The amount reflects $11.63 of avoided carbon expense. The commission’s staff said in June that carbon costs haven’t been allowed by the commission in the past and make Con Ed’s request “unreasonable on its face.”

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It is time the people of South Dakota see what and who we are fighting. We must clearly see that these multinational/foreign corporations simply want to use us and our natural resources for their bottom line. However, knowledge is a powerful thing, and people are getting informed. But beware, big wind is relentless and has deep pockets.

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I read with some amusement Brian Minish’s Dec. 30 letter to the editor, as there are so many facts missing.

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Dakota Power Community Wind would have Lincoln County residents believe that the wind farm opposition is nothing more than a bunch of whiners concerned only with the view of their countryside. DPCW has also noted the Lincoln County Commissioners’ about-face in the degree of support since the initial proposal. A lot of information has since been provided that blows holes in the rosy, distorted projections for a wind farm. 

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Lincoln County voted to bar industrial wind development Tuesday night, backers of a massive turbine farm say.

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A proposed wind farm near Avon has pulled its application for a state permit, one week after nearly 300 people attended a sharply divided public hearing for the project.

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A proposed 201-megawatt wind farm faces its next challenge this week, as state officials hold a hearing in the vicinity of the proposed Prevailing Winds site.

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While some communities have welcomed wind farms with open arms, others are actively working to prevent them. “Of the 77 registered voters, 50 of them did sign a petition against it,” Letcher Township Supervisor Murray VanLaecken said.

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Blindauer is worried about the imposing size of the structures, which would likely be the same size as the 446-foot turbines proposed in Davison County, she's more concerned with the potential impact on the value of her property. Blindauer also said she was asked to consider installing a tower on her land, but she declined ..."I'm not taking it. I don't want to devalue my land with those things. Plus the fact that I respect my neighbors, too."

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Small companies he called “flippers,” like to come into an area like Fall River County, promise local landowners big returns on allowing them to site wind or solar farms on their ground. But the only thing they’re after, Kaan said, is energy tax credit money and tying up land so other energy companies can’t develop it. If flippers get a foothold with a landowner, it could be as long as 10 years before a legitimate energy developer can create a legitimate wind or solar farm on the property, he said.

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The Willow Creek wind farm, planned for a site about 10 miles northeast of Newell, on Thursday won approval of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission.

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In the settlement stipulation submitted by PUC staff and Willow Creek representatives, the parties outlined 32 terms and conditions related to the construction and operation of the wind energy project. Items addressed by the stipulation included road protections, mitigation and restoration of areas and property disturbed during construction and maintenance, and communication with landowners.

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A group of concerned citizens met in Newell, South Dakota Saturday to discuss a proposed wind farm in their area. Wind Quarry Operations LLC of Colorado has already filed an application with the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) for the Willow Creek Wind Energy Facility.

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Crossing the threshold from a state with wind to spare and a state with wind to sell won't be simple. Especially when its met with community resistance. Hundreds of residents support We-Care South Dakota, a non-profit group committed to keeping turbines off the south Lincoln countryside.

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South Dakota has enormous potential for wind energy development. It ranks sixth in the United States for potential in generating electricity from wind, according to a laboratory associated with the Department of Energy. Just step out onto the plains and observe. The state is using only less than a fraction of a percent of this total capacity (.17 percent to be exact). This fraction of a percent produced 26 percent of all electricity produced in South Dakota in 2013 — only Iowa produces a larger share of its total electricity from wind.

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As Lincoln County officials write rules for wind towers into their zoning ordinance, landowners are split over whether a wind energy project is right for them. The proposed Dakota Power Community Wind project is still in the testing phase, but it has met much opposition already.

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Backers of a wind farm will need to re-start the application process for five test towers after the Lincoln County Commission ruled that the company had applied for wrong permits.

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Dakota Power Community decided to put up a meteorological tower to test the potential for wind power in the Lincoln County. The temporary tower is supposed to be the first of many and would collect data for proposed wind farm projects in the Bereseford, South Dakota area, but some folks who own land on the proposed site are looking to stop the project in its tracks. 

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Hubner said he's against the project for two main reasons. First, the turbines, he said, would ruin the landscape of his land to possibly drive down property values in the area. Second, the ownership of the first wind farm project, Project Beethoven, was sold to a multinational company that doesn't have the best interest of Bon Homme County in mind, Hubner said.

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Winnie Peterson is president of We-Care SD, a nonprofit group that organized in opposition to the wind project. She said they don’t believe wind farms should be built in populated areas. Sioux Falls and the north Lincoln County communities continue to grow, she pointed out, and the southern part of the county is developing with more agribusiness. 

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