Basin Board approves expansion of PrairieWinds SD1 wind project
At the May board meeting, Basin Electric Power Cooperative board members approved increasing the size of a Basin Electric subsidiary wind project to be located in South Dakota.
According to Amanda Wangler, project engineer, the project initially slated to be 100.5 megawatts (MW), will be increased to approximately 150 MW.
At 100.5 MW, initially the site would have consisted of 67 General Electric 1.5sle turbines. It will now have 101 turbines of the same model. The original budget was $230 million, adding 34 turbines increases that amount to $350 million.
Construction on the South Dakota project, which will be located near Crow Lake, will begin spring 2010 with commissioning in late 2010 or early 2011.