If It's Thursday, It Must Be The Bakken -- May 14, 2015; Wind Turbine Success Story In North Dakota

Active rigs:

	5/14/2015	05/14/2014	05/14/2013	05/14/2012	05/14/2011
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RBN Energy: second part of the series on ocean-going vessels switching to LNG.

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Bakken economy: PrairieBiz is reporting:

Slope Electric Cooperative in southwest North Dakota has been awarded $12.5 million in U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development loans to help improve power lines throughout Adams, Bowman, Hettinger and Slope counties.

The loan will help the electric cooperative, based in New England, improve 66 miles of line. The loan also includes $431,600 for smart grid projects.

$12 million / 66 miles = almost $200,000 per mile. 

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Prairie Biz is reporting:

About 10 years ago, Somerville, whose father, Dean, is the founder of Cooperstown-based gear and bearing puller maker Posi Lock Puller Inc., began developing a concept for a 30 kilowatt (kW) wind turbine system that would offer improved efficiency and reliability over other turbines by utilizing an electrical-based platform rather than the traditional mechanical-based platform. Also, given that he was developing the product in rural North Dakota, it needed to be designed to withstand brutally cold temperatures and high winds right out of the box, with no add-ons necessary.

A 30 kW turbine produces enough energy to power about 10 homes and ranks on the large side of small turbines, of which there are only a small number of manufacturers globally. Dakota Turbines initially planned to target farms, ranches and small businesses for its product, which could easily be supported by its turbines’ production capacity. But at the suggestion of one of its distributors, the company soon dialed in to a specific niche -- hog producers.

“It turns out 30 kilowatts is exactly the size needed to power hog barns,” Somerville says. The company hoped to sell four units last year, but by mid-year it had already sold 30 turbines. The average turnkey cost of each unit is about $200,000.

Given the large number of various livestock facilities in the upper Midwest -- Somerville says Iowa alone has about 40,000 hog barns -- the company sees great potential demand for its systems.

Still, Somerville is determined to ramp up at a measured pace in order to ensure quality product. The current facility’s annual production capacity is 100 units, but Dakota Turbines expects to sell 30 turbines again this year as it continues to perfect its process. Eventually though, the company will take its business global, as Posi Lock did.

Somerville says the company has already received interest from Vietnam and the potential exists to produce a version of its system that could operate off the grid, which is appealing for applications throughout Asia and also in Alaska, where remote villages currently rely on diesel generators for power.