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March 24,
2024 Regulators approve early start for largest solar farm in SD; Basin Electric to buy the power
Utility regulators took actions this month
that will allow a solar energy project to start producing
electricity ahead of schedule at the largest solar farm in South
Dakota.
Bismarck-based Basin Electric Power Cooperative
will buy the power. Basin Electric serves numerous rural electric co-ops
across the region.
Wild Springs Solar’s $190 million project sprawls
across areas totaling 1,499 acres -- about 2 square miles -- of
ranchland in Pennington County, just south of New Underwood. The project
was built by National Grid Renewables, of Bloomington, Minnesota,
South Dakota Searchlight reported.
The project’s construction phase may conclude ahead
of schedule. So, the company requested a change to its permit conditions
that will allow it to start operations as sooner than the previously
anticipated date of May 1.
The state
Public Utilities Commission required the solar farm to post a surety
bond to make sure there is enough money to safely remove the solar
panels and clean up the site when the solar farm is no longer used. The
initial bond amounts were $2.5 million and then $3 million. The new
surety bond amount is $4.14 million.
The changes in the bond amount reflect changing
estimates of the future decommissioning costs. The changing cost
estimates are due to the fluctuating value of scrap steel. If the solar
farm is shut down, some of the steel could be sold for scrap to offset
the cost of decommissioning the project.
“The price of HMS (scrap steel) in August 2022 was
$505 whereas it is now $325 in January 2024,” the company wrote. An
attorney for the company, Mollie Smith, said that was partly due to high
demand as supply chain problems arose during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Things were in high demand and it was difficult to
get them,” Smith told the commission.
The project can produce up to 128 megawatts of
electricity. South Dakota had only 102 megawatts of capacity from other
solar projects at the end of last year, ranking 47th in the nation,
according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. Those 102
megawatts were enough to power about 12,000 homes.
Between projects like Wild Springs and the
80-megawatt Fall River Solar project, solar electricity generation in
South Dakota is expected to rise by 328 megawatts in the next five
years. Fall River Solar is a 500-acre solar farm in Fall River County
near Oelrichs.
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