BISMARCK, N.D. – North Dakota regulators have approved construction of North Dakota's largest wind project, a 200-megawatt development north of Valley City. Its backers plan to spend $350 million on the wind farm and a new power transmission line.
The Ashtabula Wind project, so named because the turbines will be located just east of Lake Ashtabula, should be operating by year's end, members of the state Public Service Commission said Friday. It includes 133 wind turbines, which will be spaced over 77 square miles in Barnes County.
"This is a major wind farm from a national perspective," Commissioner Tony Clark said. "If you look at where wind farms are being built … there are a few larger nationally, but not a lot."
The commission on Friday approved the siting of the wind project and the route of the accompanying 9.5-mile stretch of high-voltage electric transmission line, which is necessary to transmit Ashtabula's electric power to the east.
FPL Energy, of Juno Beach, Fla., is the wind project's lead developer. Otter Tail Power Co., of Fergus Falls, Minn., intends to own 48 megawatts of generation capacity.
It will cost about $335 million to build the wind energy center and $15 million to build the power line, commission filings say.
Susan Wefald, the commission's president, said two major construction projects will be taking place in Barnes County this summer — the wind farm and a stretch of the Keystone oil pipeline, which is stretching for 218 miles through eastern North Dakota.
The oil pipeline's Barnes County route goes directly through the wind project site, Wefald said.
