By Dave Thompson
Bismarck, ND – A huge wind farm is planned for northwest North Dakota.
The 2,000 megawatt farm would have 1333 wind turbines spread over 720 square miles in Ward, Mountrail and Burke counties, northwest of Minot. The price tag: $four billion.
"If this facility were in place now, it would be by far the largest wind farm, not just in the country, but in the world," said North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Tony Clark.
The developer -- Hartland Wind Farm -- wants the permit issued by April first, 2010 -- with construction to begin that fall. But PSC President Susan Wefald says there's another dimension to this project.
"A project of this size will require construction of a major transmission line to carry the power from the wind farm to the customer," said Wefald. "Planning and construction of a major transmission line can take a number of years."
Hartland says it plans to file the permit application by next June first. Hartland is a joint project of Baxter, MN - based Denali Energy and Houston, TX - based Montgomery Energy.