South Dakota Searchlight
South Dakota regulators awarded a permit Friday for a 68-turbine wind energy project in northeastern South Dakota.
Chicago-based Invenergy applied to build the project through its South Dakota subsidiary, Deuel Harvest Wind Energy South. The turbines will be spread across 46 square miles of privately owned land near the small town of Brandt in Deuel County. According to the company’s application last year, the project’s estimated cost is $621 million.
The “south” in the project’s name distinguishes it from the 109-turbine Deuel Harvest Wind Farm, which Invenergy completed in 2021 and sold to Atlanta-based Southern Power.
The new project site is about six miles south of the existing Deuel Harvest wind farm. Another wind farm, Tatanka Ridge, is adjacent to the southwest edge of the proposed project area. The new project would raise the number of wind turbines in Deuel County to 233.
The project will deliver up to 260 megawatts of electricity. South Dakota ranks 13th in the nation with 3,462 megawatts of installed wind energy capacity, according to the American Wind Power Association.
More than 50 conditions are included with the permit, according to the Public Utilities Commission, addressing cooperation with local agricultural operations, daily time limits on construction, protection of threatened or endangered species, noise levels and more. In a news release, the commission said the Federal Aviation Administration is studying the potential aeronautical hazards at the site.
“How many of the turbine locations are actually constructed will be determined by additional FAA evaluation and noise modeling based on turbine type,” Commission Vice Chairman Chris Nelson said in the release.
In its application, Invenergy estimated the project will generate payments to landowners totaling $78 million over the next 30 years, and property tax revenue generated for local governments will total $38 million during the same period. The project is expected to create 243 jobs during construction and eight long-term operational jobs.