(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Adjustment approved six conditional use permits Tuesday evening for a wind farm being proposed by Clipper Wind Power. The company wants to build 29 wind turbines in western Dickinson county. The power is to be sold through a contract with Alliant Energy/Interstate Power.
Eight more permits needed for the project will be considered by the board at a later date.
Approval of the first six Tuesday evening came after hours of wrangling over the wording of numerous stipulations that were attached to the permits.
One of them that wound up being re-worded would have been a deal-breaker for the project, according to Clipper officials. The board was thinking about requiring new permits be applied for if the company would be sold in the future. Eli Bosco, a Project Manager for Clipper Wind Power, says that provision would have made it impossible for the company to get financing. The board agreed to new language saying the permits would be allowed to stay in place as long as the wind mills are used as a wind energy conversion system.
