WATERTOWN, S.D. -- South Dakota could be home to even more turbines capturing the prairie wind and turning it into electrical power for business and residential consumers.
Dakota Wind Energy is outlining plans at a series of November meetings for a large wind farm in the northeastern part of South Dakota. The company's goal is to develop up to 750 megawatts of wind-produced electricity from turbines that will be erected in South Dakota's Day, Marshall and Roberts counties. When all the turbines are up and running at capacity, it is expected they will produce enough power to supply about 220,000 homes.
Wind energy is becoming increasingly popular in the state. In October, the 51-megawatt Wessington Springs Wind Farm was dedicated and will provide clean, renewable energy to the University of South Dakota and South Dakota State University.
Transporting energy
Renewable fuel and clean energy advocates no doubt are hailing the increase in the number of wind turbines going up in South Dakota. They provide locally generated renewable energy that helps lessen our dependence on foreign energy sources and is more environmentally friendly than electricity produced by oil or coal-fired power plants.
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But whether it's energy produced by a traditional method or an alternative method, it still has to travel from where it's produced to where it's being used. And to do that requires the use of transmission lines to move that power from point A to point B.
Have you ever noticed when new wind farms and other renewable sources of energy go on line, you don't hear any arguments from people opposed to the building of new power lines to move that power? But when new lines are needed to help move power from traditional sources like the proposed Big Stone II Power Plant, the opposition comes out with all kinds of reasons why the power lines to move that power shouldn't be constructed?
What's the difference? The only difference is how that power is produced. Granted, coal-fired plants have more of an impact on the environment than wind farms and other environmentally friendly alternative fuel sources. But if it's OK to build new power lines to move the power alternative sources produce, why isn't it OK to build power lines to transmit the power generated by a new coal-fired plant? The answer is simple -- it comes down to the agenda of environmentalists who are so overboard on going green their vision is distorted and their objectivity all but gone.
'Green' goals
Going green is a goal many people are striving for and it's something we need to do on a continuing basis. The smaller our carbon footprint is, the better it is for all of us. And the more renewable sources of energy we use, the better off we are not only environmentally, but economically as well. But the simple fact of the matter is our country has a growing energy demand and, in the immediate future, that demand cannot be entirely met by alternative energy supplies.
Yes, alternative fuels like wind power, solar power and hydro power can help meet part of the demand, but to meet the rest, we need traditional power generating plants like Big Stone II. And if constructing new power lines is OK to move power generated by wind farms, then new power lines are OK to move power generated by a coal-fired plant like Big Stone II. There's no difference in what they carry, only in how it is produced.
- Watertown (S.D.) Public Opinion
