South Dakota officials debate lengthening time for developers to complete wind energy projects in the state

A bill that would lengthen the amount of time to develop a wind energy project to as long as 50 years meets with some concern by one industry official.

House Assistant Majority Leader Kristi Noem, R-Castlewood, wants to change the current limit, which is five years, for developers to have an easement — the right to use another person’s land for a stated purpose — on wind projects. The bill is HB1263.

Steve Wegman, executive director of the South Dakota Wind Energy Association, said association members are split on the measure. Half think the current time frame is sufficient. The other half think a longer period is needed for financing.

“If you can’t develop a wind project in five to seven years, their contention is maybe you shouldn’t be in the wind business,” he said. “If you open it up with no conditions on it to, say, 50 years, this could be a hindrance to wind development.”

Wegman said he crafted the original legislation for the current statute in 1995 to protect landowners from getting taken advantage of by land spectators.

“If you do lengthen the time, people have to do a lot of research and make good choices and make sure they don’t sign their land away and get compensated,” he said.

Noem said she and others know of wind projects that they would like to see come to South Dakota, but the development period isn’t long enough.

“We’d like to change that development period to make it feasible for them to come in and build the type of projects they are hoping to build,” she said.

Noem pointed out the state is ranked fourth in wind development potential in the nation yet is 20th in production.

“You can obviously see we are not reaching our potential when it comes to the wind industry,” Noem said. “Developers have looked at South Dakota, looked at our statutes and said, ‘No, we can’t make that happen.’”

She said she knows of one developer who wanted to build a large wind project, but is being hampered by this law. During meetings with the governor’s office and state lawmakers, they learned of several developers who are working on projects now that want to erect larger ones if the bill is passed.

“It made us aware of the situation and realize if we really want some of these projects to come and to include transmission as well to get the energy out of the state, we are going to have to allow them the time to get to it,” Noem said.

Wegman said the state can only add projects that produce another 1,000 megawatts of wind.

“To do more wind, we need more transmission (lines). It’s going to take more than 12 years because you to go through other states and their regulatory bodies,” he said. “By sliding the numbers around may not be the best government policy.”

Tyndall resident Bruce Voigt of B&H Wind in Avon, which is testing the town’s wind capacity with two meteorological towers, said that most land-lease agreements last for five years. After that, they can be renewed.

“People don’t like to sign up for anything that long,” he said of 10 years. “Things change a lot in five years. … Usually in five years, you should know if a project is going to happen or not.”

The bill has yet to be discussed by the House State Affairs Committee. But Noem anticipates some negotiations, such as adjusting the time limit to 12 or 15 years, will occur with the bill.

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