Napoleon to be surrounded by new wind farm

BISMARCK — A new wind farm in Logan County will virtually surround the city of Napoleon and will be the biggest wind farm in the state if built as proposed.

Napoleon Mayor Kyle Haas said virtually everyone in and around town is in favor of the project and looking forward to it getting started.

“It will be good for the community,” he said Wednesday. “There are a lot of people who have money (invested) into it.”

The North Dakota Public Service Commission will hold a hearing on the Just Wind project at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 21 in the Logan County Courthouse in Napoleon.

Just Wind wants to construct the wind farm next year.

Meanwhile, residents of the Rugby, N.D., area have kept the welcome mat out for a wind farm in their area for three years and “are very happy” that a company has revived plans that had been shelved since 2005, North Dakota public service commissioners said Wednesday.

Iberdola Renewable Inc. proposes starting construction this fall, commissioners said.

The PSC had an informal hearing Aug. 27 in Bismarck to consider slight changes in the turbine locations and among the comments was from the local economic development director “who had nothing to say except ‘We’re all for it,’ ” said Commissioner Kevin Cramer.

The PSC on Wednesday approved a revamped siting permit for the Rugby project now owned by Iberdola Renewables Inc. It originally had been granted to PPM Energy in 2005 but the project never materialized. The new permit was needed because Iberdola proposes 71 towers, with turbines of 2.1-megawatt capacity, instead of PPM’s plan for 100 1.5-megawatt turbines, commissioners said.

Commissioner Tony Clark said the only concern at Rugby was from landowners who were afraid they were going to lose the possibility of having a turbine.

In Napoleon, Haas said Just Wind is renovating a building on Main Street for its offices.

“Even the people who didn’t invest in it, there are very few, if any, that are dead set against it,” Haas said.

The wind farm will surround Napoleon on the south, east and north sides in a long rectangle shape and contain 160 wind towers, each with a turbine capable of putting out 2.3 megawatts. That’s larger than the turbines in other wind farms in the state. The wind farm’s capacity will be 360 megawatts, Public Service Commissioner Susan Wefald said Wednesday.

“This is a very significant wind farm,” she said. To date, the largest in the state is 200 megawatts.

Cole works for Forum Communications Co., which

owns The Jamestown Sun

Tags: windfarm, napoleon, logancounty