The U.S. Energy Information Agency provides a remarkable interactive map showing the location of American energy resources, production facilities, and transmission infrastructure. This map shows wind power potential (brown is poor, light blue is good, dark blue is superb) and the locations of wind power plants in South Dakota:
West River is rich with windy ridges, as is a good slice of the state between the Missouri and James River valleys. The eastern slope of the Coteau des Prairies offers another windy blue zone running from Veblen to Elkton. But dense wind tower developments don’t crop up until you roll on to Minnesota and Iowa:
South Dakota offers a larger percentage of land with strong wind energy-generation potential than pretty much any other state. Yet we remain a relative turbine desert, one of the biggest stretches of untapped viable wind energy. We seem to be missing an opportunity.
Related Statistics from US-EIA:
- South Dakota produces 0.3% of all U.S. energy, ranking 39th.
- South Dakota ranks 8th for energy consumption per capita and 6th for energy expenditures per capita.
- South Dakotans spend $4,499 per capita per year on energy. Minnesotans spend $3,553 per capita per year on energy. That’s $946 more each Minnesotan has than South Dakotans do to spend on Vikings tickets.
South Dakota is the Saudi Arabia of wind.
South Dakota may be the Saudi Arabia of wind; but that’s irrelevant when South Dakota is the key stone cops for energy policy.
Saudi Arabia is a desert, yet its inhabitants still found a way to tap its energy reserves and market that fuel to every corner of the globe. If the sheiks can figure out that engineering and business problem, so can we.
The modus operandi is to send any extra energy that we are not using elsewhere, but we could find ways to use it instead. We’ll see if we actually develop new industries or reconfigure old ones to work with what is available, when it is available.
I’d be interested to know where the anti wind turbine groups get their financing.
As would I!