Wind project to have turbines located in Pipestone County

Around eight to 15 wind turbines could be constructed in Aetna Township in the northeast corner of Pipestone County as part of the Box Car Wind project.

The project is planned by Apex Clean Energy, which is based in Virginia, and has the potential to generate 1,000 megawatts of energy. According to www.boxcarwind.com, that’s enough to power up to 370,000 U.S. homes.

Drew Christensen, senior director of public engagement for Apex Clean Energy, out of its regional office in the Twin Cities, told the Pipestone County Commissioners during their March 10 meeting that the project has been under development for several years.

“Originally it was all going to be in Lyon County and then it started to go down into Murray County,” Christensen told the commissioners. “At this point we’re kind of in the closing phases of developing the project, but we do have a few leases in far northeastern Pipestone County and we are delayed, in that case, in coming and meeting with you and talking to you a little bit about the project.”

He said the project will stretch from Russell on the north side to Slayton in the south and from near Garvin on the east side to Ruthton in the west. It will be built in two phases and include around 200 wind turbines.

Garrick Valverde, senior development manager for Apex Clean Energy, out of its Lawrence, Kan. office, said the turbines will be made by GE and be between 3.8 and 4.2 megawatts in capacity. They’ll be about 600 feet high at the highest point.

Christensen said the project will be connected to a new transmission line planned by Xcel Energy that will run from Becker to Garvin. He said it’s expected that there would be less curtailment with the Box Car Wind project than with other existing projects due to the new transmission line.

“Pipestone County, I’m sure, as well as other counties, has seen some inconsistencies in their tax revenue from these projects based on curtailment, which is too much power that the lines can’t take,” Christensen said. “This is a new transmission line that has been purposely built for wind and then gas as a backup when the wind isn’t blowing, which as we all know isn’t very often in southwest Minnesota, so we would anticipate much less curtailment on this project than on some of the existing projects.”

Commissioner Luke Johnson said he wished that would extend to other wind projects in the county. Christensen said the grid is all interconnected, so more capacity is beneficial across the board.