Donald Trump might revoke his endorsement of Larry Rhoden if he gets wind of all the woke energy South Dakota’s Governor is promoting. On Tuesday, Governor Rhoden’s Board of Economic Development approved over $6 million in tax breaks for Philip Wind Partners’ big wind farm in Haakon County:
Philip Wind Partners will receive up $6,102,702, or 35% of the state sales tax paid on the project’s eligible costs of $737,397,147.
…The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission granted a permit for the project on February 17, 2026.
The permit allows Invenergy to operate up to 87 wind turbines on a 68,300-acre area southwest of the intersection of SD 73 and SD 34 [Bob Mercer, “Philip Wind OK’d for Partial Refund of State Sales Tax,” KELO-TV, 2026.10.13].
When completed, Invenergy’s West River project will tie with the Crowned Ridge I wind farm in Codington and Grant counties as the sixth-biggest wind farm by number of turbines but tie with the Deuel Harvest Wind Farm in Deuel County for first in power production, cranking out 300 megawatts (the company posts that figure on its website; the press reports 333 MW), enough by the company’s figuring to power 121,000 American homes. Given West River’s population of about 271,000 and South Dakota’s average household size of 2.39, and we could power every house in West River plus a few Rivians from 87 big spinners catching the wind between the Bad and Cheyenne rivers, energy tech that the Iranians can’t blockade and the Russians can’t sell to make missiles.
According to Invenergy’s September 30 update to the Public Utilities Commission, the company started laying mud mats in June and has been improving roads, building new section line access roads, digging foundations, and installing steel foundation cages. Invenergy says it should be starting work on the electrical infrastructure this month. State-subsidized turbines start going up next June; Invenergy plans to start pumping electricity to the grid in March 2028.
In South Dakota’s Black Hills the US Department of Energy, New Mexico’s Sandia Labs, Los Alamos National Laboratory, South Dakota School of Mines and others are collaborating on the potential for generating electricity using enhanced geothermal system but Hot Springs, Belle Fourche, Philip and Midland also enjoy untapped geothermal resources.
The cost of subsidizing, manufacturing, transporting, erecting, maintaining then removing and disposing of just one wind turbine eyesore bat and bird killer would take about six hundred subscribers to energy self-reliance. Microgrid technologies are destined to enhance tribal sovereignty, free communities from electric monopolies and net-metering only gives control back to utilities enabled by moral hazard.
No corporate taxes, a compliant regulator, a dearth of environmental protection and cheap labor make South Dakota the perfect dumping ground for Earth killers like coal and eyesores like wind farms.
Nevertheless, according to Earth hating Public Utilities Cartel Commissioner Chris Nelson the amount of wind power generation may have reached its plateau. In a 2019 interview with WNAX Radio Nelson said he believes there will be rapid development of solar power production facilities instead. But, the predicted shift toward solar, wind energy didn’t stop entirely; major projects like the $400 million Crowned Ridge Wind Farm still moved forward around that timeframe. However, his prediction accurately foreshadowed a broader regional and national trend of diversifying renewable portfolios with rapid solar deployment to balance out the grid.
Walworth County has a population of about 5,300 souls; it’s rural, backwards and overwhelmingly Republican so Doral Renewables targeted slightly less horrible Brookings County for a solar farm instead.
Utilities are not your friends so don’t tie your photovoltaic system to the grid but if you use it as a backup keep your own electricity completely separate from the utility that reads your meter.