By Dave Thompson
Bismarck, ND – It's North Dakota's largest wind farm to date -- and construction will soon begin.
The Public Service Commission has approved the siting for the 159-megawatt Langdon Wind Energy Center. FPL Energy of Florida will build it -- with 106 turbines, costing $250-million. Otter Tail Power and Minnkota Power Cooperative will buy the electricity.
FPL filed the site permit application in March -- and the PSC granted it two months later. Project manager Scott Scovill says there was an urgency to get the approval quickly.
"A lot of factors came together," said Scovill. "One, our customers looked at this as an '07 project, and because of the weather, we want to be done by December '07."
Public Service Commissioner Tony Clark says there's been tremendous growth in North Dakota's wind power production.
"You look at other projects that are going on in the state -- you're talking about the potential by the end of the year of having 400-to-500 megawatts of installed wind power in the state," said Clark. "That's the size of a baseload coal plant."
The wind farm will cover roughly 47-and-a-half square miles in Cavalier County.