(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors today (Tues.) heard an update on a new wind energy project that’s under development in the area. Joe Crowley of Chicago based Invenergy, said their “Red Rock” project, formerly known as Tradewinds, will consist of 50 to 90 turbines, depending upon the type of turbine they select. He says most of those will be in Dickinson county…
“Our project that’s going to be taking place in Dickinson, Emmet and Clay counties is slated to be 300 megawatts which will power, produce enough power, to power the homes of about 120,000 people.”
Crowley says the project has been a long time in coming to fruition…
“This comes from a grassroots initiative. There were a number of investors back in 2008 that decided and saw the massive benefits that other counties and other communities were getting from these kinds of projects. And so they pooled together and they started developing. Since then it’s traded hands a number of times. Like we said it was with Tradewind for a while, but Invenergy is ecstatic to be the one that’s going to bring it to fruition and actually get the blades turning.”
Crowley says the project will have a significant economic impact on the region as well…
“We expect Red Rock to employ about 300 temporary jobs during construction and then as many as eight full time positions during the operations and maintenance of the project. We’ve recently done a deep dive into the specific tax benefits that Red Rock will provide the residents of Clay, Emmet and Dickinson and as a whole the project will contribute $3.6 million on average a year back to the communities that host its facilities. Over the 40 year project lifetime, that’s nearly $144 million. Dickinson itself will receive an estimated $2.8 million per year and about $113 over the course of the project’s lifetime.”
He also gave a tentative timeline for the project…
“We’re closing in on a filing a special exemption use permit. We’re hoping to file in Dickinson in June. We’ll first file in Clay and then we’ll permit in Dickinson and Emmet. We hope to start construction in early 2024 or late 2023 and be up and running sometime in 2025.”
Crowley says the company is currently conducting a multitude of environmental, wildlife, archaeological and other studies and will also make available visual simulations of the project…
“We’ll have it from a number of locations all over the counties so you guys know what it looks like from the shores of Lake Okoboji and Spirit Lake. That’s a really important part of our project so you guys understand what you’re buying into and what are the benefits of the project you’ll actually be a part of.”
Crowley says public informational meetings will be held sometime this summer. He says participation among landowners is strictly voluntary.
