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South Dakota Cures The Renewable Energy Blues
South Dakota’s renewable energy resources are quickly expanding
beyond hydropower, with wind as frontrunner and solar bringing up the
rear.
South Dakota's renewable energy resources are expanding beyond
hydropower, bigly (image courtesy of US DOE).
The political knives are still out when the
topic turns to climate change, but it looks like the energy transition
is going to happen anyways. A case in point is the “red” state of
South Dakota, which has now amassed enough renewable energy to fulfill
its own electricity needs, and then some.
South Dakota
Hearts Renewable Energy
South Dakota is no stranger to renewable
energy. The state got its first hydropower facilities up and running
in 1912, followed by another growth spurt in the 1950s.
Hydropower was the king of the renewable
energy hill in South Dakota for the next 50 years or so. Wind turbines
began to dot the landscape in the early 2000s, when developers caught
on to the high-quality wind resources in the state. As a result, in
2011 South Dakota became the first state in the US to get
more than 20%
of its electricity from wind turbines.
That statistic comes from the latest US
Energy Information Administration report, which also notes that South
Dakota had 23
wind farms in operation by the beginning of this year, totaling
2,300 megawatts of capacity. The latest figure from the American Clean
Power Association is even more impressive, topping 3,000 megawatts.
IEA has this to say about the surge in
renewable energy development in South Dakota:
“Renewable
resources supplied more than four-fifths of the electricity generated
in South Dakota in 2021, mostly from wind and hydroelectric power…In
2021, wind energy surpassed hydroelectric power’s contribution to
South Dakota’s in-state electricity generation for the first time.”
They kind of buried the lede there, but
local reporters were quick to note that it was quite a feat to have
another renewable energy resource overtake hydropower, especially
considering the relatively short time frame.
South Dakota
Piles On The Wind Energy
That all sounds very exciting. However,
South Dakota may have some ‘splaining to do, depending on your
perspective. Stanford professor Mark Z. Jacobson, for example, took a
mixed message away from the IEA report:
“South Dakota
produces enough (120%) of its electricity consumed in the annual
average to offset 120% of the
pollution and greenhouse gases and mining from fossils produced
there or elsewhere that create 100% of South Dakota’s electricity.”
Nevertheless, South Dakota is not
stopping at the 120% mark. Earlier this year, the state’s Public
Service Commission took note of all the wind farms in operation and
added this nugget:
“Other areas
considered for wind energy development are the Coteau des Prairies in
the northeast; Buffalo Ridge, which extends north-south from Marshall
County to Brookings County; Turkey Ridge within Turner and Yankton
counties; Fox Ridge near Faith; and several central South Dakota
counties and tribal lands.”
If you have the inside scoop on those
central South Dakota counties and tribal lands, drop us a note in the
comment thread. We’ve spotted two possibilities so far. One is the
200-megawatt North Bend Wind Project under the wing of Engie. This
will be the state’s third
wind farm in South Dakota, so they must like what they see.
The other one is the 200-megawatt
Sweetland wind farm. The developer is
Scout Clean
Energy, which has been undergoing a growth spurt after it became a
portfolio company of the firm
Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners in 2017.
Solar
Energy, Not So Much
All this activity is a sharp contrast
with the South Dakota solar industry, which has been shuffling around
in circles over the past few years. State lawmakers can take part or
all of the blame for failing to establish
a firm legislative platform for solar power during the Obama
administration.
A glimmer of hope finally appeared in
2020, when the German developer Wircon GmbH won a permit to construct
the 110-megawatt
Lookout Solar Park, to be built partly on private property within
the Pine Ridge Reservation. As described by the US Department of
Transportation, Lookout was supposed to be the first utility-scale
solar array in the state, the first to need a Public Utilities
Commission permit due to its size, and the first of its size to be
built on tribal land.
“[The]
Lookout Solar model could be potentially replicated in other
locations near transmission lines for rural renewable energy
projects,” DOT explained, taking note that access to existing
transmission infrastructure was a key factor. DOT also noted that a
Tribal Employment Rights Ordinance would cover hiring for the project.
Of Course,
Green Hydrogen Makes An Appearance
Lookout underwent
an environmental review last year, so things could be moving along
shortly and then we’ll see about that potential for replication.
Meanwhile, the US Department of Energy’s
new regional hydrogen hub program could help spur more renewable
energy development in South Dakota, solar arrays or not.
The program carves $8 billion out of last
year’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to establish half a dozen or so
regional hydrogen production, storage, and transportation networks
around the US. In past years, that would have meant increasing the use
of natural gas to produce hydrogen. However, the law stipulates that
only two of the hubs
must include natural gas.
The other hubs can leverage renewable
energy resources,
including wind and water. That is why a powerful consortium of
northeast Atlantic coast states is able to compete for one of the
hubs, even though their fossil resources are slim to none.
South Dakota is in a similar position.
The state is short on fossil resources and it imports natural gas from
Texas and Canada, which leaves it in a weak position to establish a
regional hydrogen hub for natural gas. Neighboring North Dakota has
already hooked up with Wisconsin, Montana and Minnesota to compete for
Energy Department funding, but that doesn’t necessarily mean South
Dakota gets left out in the cold.
The state does have copious biomass
resources, and last September the biofuel firm Gevo broke ground on a
new commercial-scale sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) facility in Lake
Preston, Dubbed Net-Zero 1, the new biofuel plant will leverage Gevo’s
“circular economy” model.
“All the elements of the circular economy
come together in this one facility, farmers deliver sustainably grown
corn feedstock, renewable wind power and renewable natural gas provide
electricity and thermal energy for the facility, and high-value
nutrition products, corn oil, and sustainable aviation fuel leave the
gate,” Gevo explains. Gevo also notes that the plan includes green
hydrogen, with wind turbines presumably providing the electricity for
an electrolysis system that pushes hydrogen gas from water. Renewable
hydrogen from biogas is also part of the plan.
Solar does not appear to be in the mix
for this particular project, but another development in the green
hydrogen area could help kickstart the state’s solar industry. Two
university students at
South Dakota Mines, Kirstie Gildemeister and Kelsey Fitzgerald,
have developed an award-winning electrolysis system designed to
leverage solar power, and they have already
started a company to bring it
to market.
Hydrolyst LLC and the product
they have invented have the potential to greatly improve the effort to
store and save energy generated by solar and wind power.
“The great thing is this system is scalable, it can be used for
everything from a small farm to power a whole city,” says Fitzgerald,
who is credited with creating the idea.
A
prototype near Ellsworth Air Force Base is already under way, so stay
tuned for more on that.
It’s also worth noting that part of South
Dakota is included in the MISO electricity grid, where planners are
working on a massive
transmission line construction program aimed at shuffling more
renewable energy around the Midwest.
Follow me on Twitter
@TinaMCasey (for
now), or find me on Mastodon
@Casey@mastodon.green.
Image:
Wind resources in
South Dakota (credit: US DOE WindExchange).
Green Play Ammonia™, Yielder® NFuel Energy.
Spokane, Washington. 99212
www.exactrix.com
509 995 1879 cell, Pacific.
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