Largest wind farm shaping up

By KARL PUCKETT

Tribune Staff Writer

Construction of the state's largest wind farm to date will begin this spring 85 miles north of Great Falls in Toole County, the developer said this week.

Naturener, the Spain-based developer of the project, has selected Mortenson Construction out of Minnesota, one of the nation's leading builders of wind farms, as the general contractor.

In the first phase, 69 towers capable of producing 103 1/2 megawatts will be erected in Toole County. The second phase includes land located in Glacier County.

Combined, the two phases equate to 140 towers producing 210 megawatts. Because of transmission constraints, the project is smaller than originally planned.

The McCormick wind farm, as it's informally known, still would be larger than the 135-megawatt Judith Gap Energy Center, the state's sole utility-scale wind facility.

A single megawatt of wind power generates enough electricity for 250 to 300 homes.

"We expect to have both phases fully operational before the end of 2008," said Bill Alexander, the chief developer for Naturener, whose U.S. headquarters are in San Francisco.

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Montana currently ranks 16in the nation in wind production, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

With construction of the Naturener farm, wind-powered electricity production would jump from 145 megawatts to 355.

Coal-fired power plants account for 60 percent of the state's production capacity of 5,500 megawatts, followed by hydro-electric facilities.

County and city leaders in northcentral Montana said they are anticipating additional jobs and tax revenue from the developing wind industry.

"This is probably the largest economic development project ever in the Golden Triangle," Shelby Mayor Larry Bonderud said.

Some residents are raising concerns about the visual impact of the towers and their twirling blades on Montana's open landscape, Toole County Commissioner Allan Underdal said.

"But we look at it as a way to make the wind in our area positive rather than a negative," Underdal said.

The U.S. Department of Energy ranks the wind just east of the Rocky Mountains in northern Montana as excellent to superb, capable of supporting commercial-scale wind farms.

And the McCormick wind farm would be the first of several wind projects that local officials hope will materialize along a proposed 203-mile-long transmission line between Great Falls and Lethbridge, Alberta.

But Alexander said the first two phases of the project are not dependent on construction of the new transmission because space is available on two existing lines.

The site of the farm is south of Highway 2 southwest of Ethridge, between Cut Bank and Shelby. The name of one of the landowners leasing land to Naturener is named McCormick, but Alexander said the project has yet to be officially named.

Construction will begin as soon as the ground thaws, Alexander said. Workers already are staking roads and figuring out the best tower locations.

Naturener conducted a job fair in early February in Shelby, the county seat of Toole County, which has a population of about 5,200.

The project will produce between 100 and 200 construction jobs and a dozen permanent jobs, Alexander said. The pay for the skilled labor positions will be "above average," he said.

"We've begun hiring permanent employees now based on the applications we've taken from the job fair," Alexander said.

Naturener will receive property tax breaks for being a new business and a developer of renewable energy.

After the incentives are factored in, the first phase of the wind farm will generate roughly $1.3 million in property taxes for Toole County in its first year of operation, Underdal said.

A study commissioned by Toole County projected the wind farm would result in $27.25 million in tax revenue in the county over 20 years.

"We like to expand our economy and tax base," Underdal said.

Toole County also negotiated a $280,000 a year impact fee that Naturener will pay for three years to offset road maintenance and law enforcement costs associated with construction.

Enough capacity is available on existing transmission lines owned by NorthWestern Energy and Glacier Electric to accommodate the 210 megawatts in the first two phases, Alexander said.

The company will consider a third phase if more transmission becomes available, Alexander said.

The original McCormick project would have produced 300 megawatts of electricity at a cost of $500 million but it was scaled back to the 210 megawatts due to the lack of transmission capacity in the area, Alexander said.

Toronto-based Tonbridge Power Inc. is proposing the 203-mile Montana Alberta Tie Line from Great Falls to Lethbridge, Alberta, and three wind developers, including Naturener, have secured transmission capacity on the line.

Environmental regulators in both countries still are reviewing the MATL plan.

"It's a good step toward putting more renewable energy into our energy mix," Jasen Bronec, Glacier Electric's general manager, said of the McCormick project.

He said revenue the rural electric cooperative receives for transporting electricity generated at the wind farm will help keep rates low for customers.

Naturener has hired Minneapolis-based Mortenson Construction as the general contractor to oversee construction. In 2007, Mortenson constructed more than 30 percent of new wind energy capacity in the United States.

The Naturener project will be the company's first wind construction job in the Treasure State.

"Everybody is so excited to get out to Montana," said Robyn Johnson, the company's marketing manager.

Mortenson is currently overseeing construction of new sports stadiums for Major League Baseball's Minnesota Twins and the University of Minnesota.

The towers for the McCormick project are being manufactured by DMI Industries in West Fargo, N.D., while manufacturers in Europe and Iowa are making the 50-ton generators, or turbines.

The wind farm will be constructed entirely on private land, and Alexander said the company has secured all of the permits it needs to begin construction.