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You can't see it and often can't hear it. But you can feel a breeze or a gale as it blows on your face.
Here in the Great Plains, it seems to be a constant companion. When the land was being settled, tough cowboys and ranchers would find their nerves - and skin - being rubbed raw by the wind. There are actual accounts of ranch wives being driven mad by the constant moaning of the prairie wind.
But ranchers 100 years ago decided to harness the wind to turn windmills that pumped water to thirsty livestock and actually generated a little electricity. Every so often one can see these relics sitting alone on the prairie.
In the ensuing years, little or nothing was done to exploit the winds that have blown across the state, like using their power to generate electricity. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, that was because interest in wind energy was dependent on oil prices. For example, after World War II, when oil prices were low, interest in wind energy was similarly low. But when prices were high, consumers once again turned to wind power.
As the price of oil has hit record levels, concerns about global warming and carbon reduction have many looking at renewable sources of energy like wind and solar power, sources that are free, abundant and clean that have grown in popularity.
Wind farms are sprouting up, growing wind turbines just like traditional crops, only bigger and much higher. There are two such farms in South Dakota, one operational near Highmore and one being planned near Long Lake in McPherson County.
Florida Power and Light is operating the farm in Hyde County near Highmore, and Acciona Wind Energy USA of Spain is building the farm in McPherson County.
PPM Energy of Portland, Ore., wants to measure the potential in Deuel County, and is looking for permission to install two turbines in the county. The company already has wind turbines near White in Brookings County.
Michael Ropp of South Dakota State University in Brookings is heading up SDSU's Wind Resource Assessment Network and tried to paint a picture about wind energy and its potential for use, since some skeptics point out that the wind doesn't always blow and you can never rely on it.
"The good news that it's windy. I don't think there's a single South Dakotan that needed my instruments to tell them that," Ropp said.
But even so, recent studies have shown that the scientists have underestimated the potential for wind power. "Wind speed changes at elevation, and in the band we're looking at, 50 to 90 meters, we're finding the winds tend to be stronger than had been predicted by previous studies and a little more consistent, less gusty," said Ropp.
All of this activity is one way for South Dakota to catch up with neighboring states, which seem to have a head start on wind power. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., Iowa leads the way with 1,035 megawatts of electricity generated, followed by Minnesota with 897, Wyoming with 288, North Dakota with 178, Montana with 149, Nebraska with 73 and South Dakota last with 44.
The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission is trying to lead the way on wind energy and has hosted a number of seminars to tout the benefits of wind energy. Commission Chairman Dusty Johnson says there's a lot of potential for wind energy production in the state. But he cautions that while the Black Hills is also a great source of wind, there are some challenges to getting power generated out of the area.
"One major obstacle we have to face with regard to wind development is we are on the end of a grid. There are only a few places in the country where those two grids are connected," he said. "One of them is near Rapid City, the AC/DC intertype connector that created a lot of noise and was in the news some time ago. But there only a few places where we can transfer power from east to west and vice-versa."
One thing he did mention is that if wind energy was developed in the western half of the state, it could possibly be sold locally.
Sen. John Thune has been working at getting wind power off the ground and has visited the Highmore wind turbine farm. He feels it's vital to make progress in wind power generation and said he is doing what he can to make it happen.
"It's a foregone conclusion that with the wind we have here in the state of South Dakota, we need to get ahead of the curve in terms of development," Thune said. "The state is behind others in the region, and if we need to create more incentive and benefits for developing wind energy, I'll do what I can."
Both Thune and Johnson said one untapped resource is the Native American reservations, where the tribes can take advantage of government initiatives to promote wind power and possibly generate revenue and electricity.
A question that might arise out of the discussion about wind power is what about personal wind turbines, ones that generate just enough power for a home or farm?
Tim Hauck of Black Hills Wind and Solar Power is on the leading edge of the renewable energy movement. He owns Hauck Electric, and decided to see what wind and solar-generated energy would do for his home and property. He installed a 30 foot-tall wind turbine on a hill just west of his house and uses it to supplement the power he gets from Butte Electric Cooperative.
"I can get about 600 kilowatts from this generator, and the wind doesn't really need to be blowing all that much," he said. True to form, the wind is barely a whisper on the ground and the turbine blades spin lively.
Every time the wind blows, Hauck sees benefits from his turbine. For example, when his turbine is working, the meter from Butte Electric shuts off until the wind dies down. He also has a meter that tell him how much he has "sold" to Butte Electric, although it doesn't amount to much when one considers the distance the power has to travel.
But there's more.
"I installed a system in a customer's house near Custer. He has wind and solar power, and a generator for electricity. This guy is off the grid completely, and will still have enough power to run his whole house," said Hauck.
The system runs about $14,000 and could be installed in a couple of days. If a customer installed more, then it would be cheaper. "Think about it. If you installed one or more turbines, you could conceivably run your whole house off these," he said.
There has been a lot of interest in the personal turbines, but the one sticking point for some is the opportunity to sell extra power back to the utilities. According to Hauck, there is no provision for the resale of electricity to power companies in South Dakota, but Hauck is convinced that changes will not only make tax incentives and breaks available, but will allow customers to sell any extra power they generate.
Where do the power companies fit into all of this? Why would a company like Black Hills Power and Light look to another source of power when coal is cheap and abundant? Even further, BHP owns a coalfield across Interstate 90 north of the Wyo-Dak complex east of Gillette, Wyo. Producing coal-fired electricity is very cost-efficient for them.
Officials with BHP want to assure customers and the public they are doing what they can to find solutions to the energy questions, and to that end, BHP's subsidiary Cheyenne Light and Power is partnering with Tierra Energy of Austin, Texas, to construct and operate 14 wind turbines with a capacity of 30 megawatts on land owned by the city of Cheyenne.
Randy Winkleman, general manager of Cheyenne Light, is optimistic about the project. "While we continue to develop base load generation with our mine mouth coal-fired power plants in the Powder River Basin, we see purchasing supplemental power from wind resources as a positive opportunity that mitigates dependence on natural gas and diversifies Cheyenne Light's energy portfolio," Winkleman said.
And for Tierra Energy, this is an opportunity to expand its presence in the area.
"14 wind turbines is enough to power several thousand homes," said David Marks, president of Tierra Energy. "This project will provide royalty payments to the city of Cheyenne and tax revenue to Laramie County."
Construction of the wind farm is expected to begin in 2007 pending final permitting and regulatory review, and is expected to begin producing power to Cheyenne Light customers in the fall of 2008.
Wyo-gen II, BHP's newest state-of-the-art coal-fired power plant currently under construction near Gillette, Wyo., is expected to begin serving Cheyenne customers in early 2008 with the wind project coming on later this year.
For all intents and purposes, wind has been a source of power for thousands of years, running windmills that in turn powered flour mills, machine shops and driving ships with large sails that not only carried cargo, but helped fuel exploration. It's only now that we see that looking to the past with regard to wind can have a direct impact on our future and that of our children.
