Hartland Wind Farm
News Articles
John Hoeven: Governor of North Dakota
1.97 MG PDF
nd.gov official portal for North Dakota State Government
January 6, 2009
Big wires would flow from big wind farm
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InForum News
December 4, 2008
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Business First of Columbus
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Developers talk funding for $6B wind farm
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A Publication of Institutional Investor, Inc.
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InForum News
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World's largest wind farm in Northwestern North Dakota 692 KB PDF
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Renewable Energy News
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The Kenmare News
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News Release
Joint venture to develop wind farm 432 KB PDF
Feb 7, 2008
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Hartland Wind Farm • Landowner Appreciation Picnic • September 27, 2008
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Curt Johnson (left) of Denali Energy, Inc. presents the first check to Hartland Wind Farm landowner, Bill Feickert (right), who was the first landowner to sign with the Hartland Wind Farm. |
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Curt Johnson (right) of Denali Energy, Inc. enjoys a conversation with Hartland Wind Farm landowners at the Landowner Appreciation Picnic on September 27, 2008. |
Wind project will encompass about 220,000 acres
POSTED: April 28, 2009
MINOT DAILY NEWS
Curt Johnson, left, CEO and chairman of Denali Energy Inc., presents the first check to Hartland Wind Farm landowner Bill Feickert, right, who was the first landowner to sign with the Hartland Wind Farm. The massive wind farm will consist of around 1,300 wind turbines producing about 2,000 megawatts of energy.
By DAN FELDNER
Staff Writer
dfeldner@minotdailynews.com
A massive wind farm project covering parts of Ward, Mountrail and Burke counties and running all the way north to the Canadian border is in the works and should provide thousands of megawatts of energy when it is complete in a few years.
The Hartland Wind Farm project area will be located north of U.S. Highway 2, west of the Des Lacs National Wildlife Refuge, at the U.S. 2 and 52 crossroads northwest of Minot, and include everything north of U.S. 2 to the western boundaries of Mountrail and Burke counties north to the Canadian border, while the eastern boundary will be the Des Lacs National Wildlife Refuge running parallel to U.S. 52, up to the Canadian border.
“That’s an area of about 1.2 million acres,” said Curt Johnson, CEO and chairman of Denali Energy Inc., the Baxter, Minn.-based energy company building the wind farm.
Johnson said the first phase of the project will encompass about 220,000 acres of land. What about the remaining 1 million-plus acres of land?
“The first phase is 2,000 megawatts, and we have the potential to build significantly more than that,” Johnson said.
Approximately 400,000 homes can be powered by 2,000 megawatts, Johnson said.
No firm date has been set for construction as of yet, but Johnson said they are hoping to begin in the spring of 2011, with everything being wrapped up by the end of 2012.
“With all that being said, if we are able to move that up, we will,” Johnson said. “We just need to be parallel with development of the transmission facility. We’re very positive towards the potential of it being done sooner rather than later.”
Wind turbine choices
As for what kind of turbines will be used in Hartland Wind Farm, how many would be needed and how powerful they would be, Johnson said that’s still up in the air.
“There will be around 1,300 turbines if we use a 1.5-megawatt turbine, fewer if we go with a larger machine,” Johnson said. “It’s a matter of math.”
One of the models Denali is looking at using is the General Electric 1.5sle. This model of turbine has three blades with a blade length of approximately 130 feet, a rotor speed of between 11 and 20.4 revolutions per minute, and a hub height of 225 feet. The cut-in wind speed is 3.5 meters per second, or 7.8 mph, while the cut-out wind speed is 25 meters per second, or 55.9 mph.
Lightning receptors are installed along the blades and there is surge protection in the electrical components to protect the unit against lightning strikes, while impact noise insulation of the gearbox and generator, a sound reduced gearbox, a noise reduced nacelle and rotor blades with minimized noise level help keep the turbine as quite as possible.
Johnson said this is the most predominant model used in North Dakota and has proven to be very reliable in the past. Although reliability isn’t something the wind industry has been known for in the past, Johnson said that is changing.
“That’s kind of been the rip on the wind industry, reliability,” Johnson said. “Lots of safeguards have been put into remedying that.”
There are other types of models from other manufacturers besides General Electric Denali is still considering. Johnson said they will also be using the time between now and when construction begins in a couple of years to let new and improved technology develop so they can put the best possible wind turbines into Hartland Wind Farm.
“We do have 24 months at most to enjoy the benefits of the development of the technology between now and then,” Johnson said.
While 2,000 megawatts is what they’re aiming at, Johnson said it’s always possible new technology will lead to the development of larger machines at an economical price. General Electric already has two higher capacity wind turbine models — an onshore 2.5-megawatt series and a 3.6-megawatt series designed for high-speed offshore sites.
It’s all a matter of figuring out how much land they have to work with, how big each turbine is, and how much power they need to produce from each of those turbines to reach their goals.
“We have plenty of land area identified and are very close to our objective with respect to committed land area,” Johnson said. “We have an extraordinary amount of engineering to do yet.”
Future energy storage
While Denali is working on a transmission project to get all those megawatts to where they need to go, Johnson said there are other solutions to the problem of what to do with all that energy that are being worked on. The problem of transmission and storage of energy is particularly important to North Dakota because of the tremendous potential wind power holds.
“Our ability to generate power is as much as 25 percent more than other wind farms outside of this region,” Johnson said. “North Dakota is very well known for its wind capacity.”
Although North Dakota happens to be the number one state in the country in terms of potential wind power, that doesn’t mean Denali is relying solely on the wind to provide power. They are partnering with Montgomery Energy of Houston, Texas, to provide a natural gas back-up to Hartland Wind Farm.
“It is our intention to firm our power with natural gas co-generation turbines,” Johnson said.
Ironically enough, it could be natural gas and other nonrenewable resources that are mined from the earth that help secure a brighter future for wind power.
A very interesting point Johnson made is the presence of major potash deposits in northern Burke County. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, potash is used primarily as an agricultural fertilizer (plant nutrient) because it is a source of soluble potassium. Potash denotes a variety of mined and manufactured salts, all containing the element potassium in water-soluble form.
These sizable deposits of potash could be exactly the energy storage solution wind power needs in the form of compressed air energy storage. Once the potash caverns have been mined and are empty, all that space could be used to store compressed air during off-peak times when energy demand is low. It could then be used during peak times when energy demand is high.
“We are very optimistic with the potential of compressed air storage with respect to our project,” Johnson said.
There are two such plants in the world, according to Johnson. One in Alabama, and another one in Germany.
The way the plants works is quite simple, according to Johnson. During off-peak times, energy generated by the wind farm would run compressors that in turn store massive amounts of compressed air in the empty caverns of the potash mines. The compressed air would then be a form of stored energy, which when reversed, could be recommitted to energy generation that would serve to supplement the energy being generated by the wind farm itself.
Johnson said the technology is extraordinary, and noted that Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy, is pushing for this technology to be developed and utilized.
Johnson also noted that a lot of natural gas is flared off in the Bakken Formation as companies drill for oil. He said the giant caverns left over from the potash mining could not just be used to store compressed air, but natural gas as well.
Its close proximity other potential sources of energy such as natural gas or compressed air storage that could be used to firm Hartland Wind Farm’s power is what makes the massive project stand out from other wind farms located not just in North Dakota, but in the entire United States.
“That makes Hartland Wind Farm unlike virtually any other wind farm in the U.S.,” Johnson said.
Although the potential of this promising storage solution is huge, Johnson said that they will have to be extremely patient because it might be a while before any dramatic technological breakthroughs are discovered. On top of that, there is also the problem that all those giant caverns that need to be empty for this to work are currently filled to the brim with potash.
“That’s a while down the road, it could take 15 years to mine all that,” Johnson said. “Hopefully those technologies are developed by the time those caverns are mined and resources are moved to the next level.”
He said these developing technologies should help ease public concerns about the reliability of wind energy, which Johnson said is something they have fought long and hard to overcome.
“There’s some concerns about the reliability of this energy to the consumer, and we’ve worked hard to safeguard against those concerns,” Johnson said. “Again, with our firming and the compressed air and other things.”
Protecting the wildlife
As with all wind projects, the prospect of what having over 1,000 wind turbines in the area will do to avian wildlife has been brought up. Because Hartland Wind Farm is in a major migration corridor, there are public concerns of birds running into giant spinning blades that are over 100 feet long or otherwise being harmed by the wind farm’s infrastructure.
“We believe that we can fully mediate any potential impact working with Game and Fish,” Johnson said.
He noted that they are working on a habitat conservation plan with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department as well as the United States Fish and Wildlife Service that should be able to protect all varieties of birds that fly through the area as much as possible.
“That plan will mitigate virtually all impact concerns with respect to the wildlife corridor,” Johnson said.
Johnson also said that contrary to popular belief, it’s not the wind turbine’s spinning blades that pose the most harm to birds, but something else that’s far more common around North Dakota, in both rural and urban settings.
“Turbines aren’t really the real danger to avians, it’s the transmission lines,” Johnson said. “Our collections are mostly below grade. We’ve limited the amount of infrastructure above grade.”
Moving the energy
There are numerous concerns and challenges that Denali Energy is dealing with to make Hartland Wind Farm a reality. None of them are bigger than the major challenge that faces all wind farms — transmission capacity.
Unlike the national highway system, the energy grid isn’t set up to allow easy movement from one side of the United States to the other. The basic problem all wind farms in North Dakota face is that there aren’t enough people in the region to take advantage of all the wind energy that is being produced. Conversely, there is also no easy way to transmit the energy to the major population centers on the East and West coasts because of how fractured the national power grid is.
To solve this quandary, Denali Energy has decided to take the bull by the horns and build a massive transmission system from Hartland Wind Farm to Illinois. This transmission system will be 1,000 miles long and be composed of 765-kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines.
They are working on the project with American Electric Power of Columbus, Ohio, and ITC Holdings Corp. in Novi, Mich., near Detroit.
AEP is a leading proponent of developing a nationwide interstate transmission system modeled after the interstate highway system, while ITC is in the business of investing in electricity transmission infrastructure improvements as a means to improve electric reliability, reduce congestion and lower the overall cost of delivered energy.
“So it’s nice to have two very reputable firms working towards the same objective, and that is to build the energy translocation facility that’s necessary that will allow us to develop this resource and get this power to the urban areas that need it,” Johnson said.
Denali Energy is doing all the preliminary work in conjunction with AEP, including corridor identification. The western terminus of the transmission system will be in the southeast corner of the Hartland Wind Farm site, at the U.S. 2 and 52 crossroads. The eastern terminus will be in western Illinois.
Other developments that Johnson said are helping projects like Hartland Wind Farm are happening at the federal level. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruled in favor of “anchor shippers” in two cases Feb. 19 involving Chinook Power Transmission LLC, which is running a 1,000-mile, 500-kilovolt high-voltage transmission line from Montana to Nevada, and Zephyr Power Transmission LLC, which is running a 1,100-mile 500-kilovolt high-voltage transmission line from Wyoming to Nevada.
Johnson said to think of anchor shippers as anchor stores at a mall, the largest players in the market who get the ball rolling and allow other, smaller energy shippers to have success where they otherwise might not be able to. The ruling basically states that large projects like Hartland Wind Farm get preference when the commission and other administrative agencies consider those types of developments. Before it was first-come-first-serve, and now the larger projects get priority over the smaller ones.
“These were the projects that FERC ruled on, and following suit and precedent, this is very favorable to what we’re doing,” Johnson said. “That kind of ruling is very favorable.”
“It’s about time”
Johnson said they have heard very few complaints from the public and landowners in the project site’s area regarding Hartland Wind Farm.
“The site area is about 1.2 million acres, we’ve had over 1,000 meetings with landowners in the site area, and maybe two or three people have expressed concern,” Johnson said. “It is very, very limited.”
If anyone would be willing to voice their complaints, Johnson said it would be the North Dakotans in this site area. He said they’ve derived their livelihood from the soil for generations, and wouldn’t hesitate to speak up if they felt Denali Energy would be in any way harming the environment, the wildlife or the people in the area.
“These folks in this part of the country — and I grew up in this part of the country — these are some of the most socially responsible people on the face of the Earth. For generations, these families have taken everything they’re worth and put it in the ground and prayed for rain and good conditions,” Johnson said. “They’ve done that for generations, they’ve realized their social responsibility without any reservation.”
Johnson said the wind turbines aren’t meant to replace the income the people get from their land, but to supplement it. They would serve as sort of a buffer against any droughts, diseases or disasters that might strike.
“We’re not coming to them to supplant or offer an alternative, but a hedge in addition to those risks that may offset some of those risks they take every year,” Johnson said.
Rather than feel threatened by the massive wind turbines, the landowners have had a much different reaction during all those meetings Johnson has attended.
“We’ve been met with an overwhelming proclamation of ‘it’s about time,’” Johnson said.
While they still might have to pray for rain, Johnson said those people will likely never have to pray for the wind to blow, because it always does sooner or later.
Johnson noted that many of the people he has talked with are actually very familiar with the concept of wind energy, at least on a smaller scale. Many of the people who Johnson has spoken with were young children in the 1930s and 1940s, where they listened to the radio or read by a 40-watt lightbulb that was powered by electricity provided by what they refer to as a “wind charger.” In fact, those people still refer to the giant wind turbines as wind chargers at the meetings, Johnson said.
“So this is really nothing new, only on a larger scale,” Johnson. “The majority of them are very open to what we’re offering.”
Johnson said the overall response he has received from everyone at the meetings has left him breathless. The few landowners who are disappointed with the new wind project are usually the ones who aren’t fortunate enough to get a turbine on their land.
“The only unfortunate part is that there will be some who won’t get turbines that want them,” Johnson said. “We’ve been met with an extraordinary response, well over 100,000 acres at this phase of the project. The only thing I can say about them is I can’t say enough about them.”
Johnson admitted, however, that not everything about the wind turbines is perfect. He noted that the skyline of North Dakota is going to be affected by the silhouette of the machines, which is something he can’t help but think about.
“It concerns me that we’re going to have some impact there,” Johnson said.
He said that not even the thought of getting some extra money from placing advertising on the turbines would make him deviate from the core development process of efficiently producing energy with as little impact to the surrounding environment as possible.
“We want to do as much as we can to minimize the impact,” Johnson said. “There’s all kinds of technologies out there. If there was paint to blend it (wind turbines) into the background, we would use it.”
However, on the plus side, he noted that the project will create hundreds, if not thousands of jobs, and many of those jobs will be retained for operations and maintenance over the 40 years they’re proposing to operate the wind farm. This also means revenue in the form of taxes to local cities and counties.
Wind energy’s potential
Everyone doing business in the wind industry in North Dakota realizes how much potential there is. That doesn’t just include the companies developing the wind farms or the landowners signing the lease agreements, but the folks working in the Capitol in Bismarck as well.
“The state of North Dakota has been extraordinary to work with,” Johnson said, noting that he’s had numerous conversations about developing wind energy in North Dakota with Roger Johnson, the former agriculture commissioner of North Dakota who recently took the job as president of the National Farmers Union. “North Dakota wants to be the number one energy state in the union. They believe the can do it, and so do I.”
In an era that sometimes sees partisan politics, Johnson said this goal is meaningful no matter what side of the political isle you’re on.
“The agencies are all very receptive and proactive,” Johnson said. “It’s just a tremendous environment in which to be involved in.”
Realizing that tremendous potential will of course take work. Johnson again drummed home the need for a transmission system capable of sending all those megawatts to where they are needed the most.
Johnson noted the renewable energy efforts of the Obama administration and its recognition of the potential of Midwestern states in this arena fills Johnson with hope for the future. He also lauded the National Clean Energy Plan, a collection of individuals who are indifferent to political affiliations and instead are focused on a single goal.
“All these individuals coming together, realizing the only way we’re going to see the development of these resources is to improve the grid, which by the way needs improving regardless,” Johnson said.
Increasing transmission capacity is the key, Johnson said, because the grid is as big as it’s going to get right now, and taking power from one area and giving it to another is simply not an option.
“We can’t add another spark nationally to the grid. You don’t realize the power lines are plum full of water, and you can’t take any power out of those lines because someone will get shorted,” Johnson said. “We as a nation are at risk due to the lack of continuity amongst the various operators of our grid.”
Johnson said improving the grid is a complex undertaking, but when achieved, it would allow for a very simple task to be accomplished that is also very important.
“Basically you could ship power from one region to the next,” Johnson said. “That’s very challenging right now.”
While Johnson believes wind energy has a large role to play in the future of North Dakota as well as the United States, he realizes that the wind doesn’t blow all the time, and developing other sources of energy is just as vital.
“I’m of the all of the above category,” Johnson said. “All energy resources need to be developed.”
Johnson said he has met and talked with T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oil and gas executive who is setting his sights on developing renewable energy to secure the United States’ energy independence in the future.
Johnson said he shares Pickens’ belief that it’s important that the country not be held hostage by foreign energy sources, and the development of domestic energy sources is the key to achieving this.
“I think we all admit that we have a reliance on coal power in our nation, but what’s the harm in developing more generation that’s not harmful to the environment?” Johnson said. “And we believe wind energy is competitive on that platform.”
