North Dakota Wind Farm Approved; Almost $2 Million/MW; Another Small Science Project -- July 7, 2016

I'm posting this mostly for the archives, to keep track of the cost of installing unreliable energy. It's also interesting to note how small these unreliable energy farms are in comparison to natural gas plants.

The Lackawaana Energy Center, for example, a newly proposed natural gas plant in Pennsylvania (posted earlier) will be a 1,500 MW plant (posted earlier today). Compare with this wind farm proposed for southwestern North Dakota:

• final chapter of the Brady Wind farm saga
• ND PSC approved NextEra Energy Resources Brady Wind II
• northern Hettinger County
• 72 turbine
• 150-MW
• $250 million 
• Brady Wind I: Stark County, 87 turbines

At $250 million, Brady Wind II works out to $1.7 million/MW. At $1.7 million/MW, this is exactly in line with the EIA figures posted in June, 2016, in which the government calculated it cost an average of almost $1,900/MW to build a new wind farm compared to less than $1,000/MW for a new natural gas plant. Unaccounted-for-costs widen the gap.

I suppose what bothers me the most is how much effort is wasted putting in these bird-killing machines, these small science projects that have absolutely no redeeming value.

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Update On Davis Refinery Proposed For Belfield, ND, Area

At The Dickinson Press:

• a gazillion more steps in this process, but Billings County approved the rezoning of 715 acres of land from agricultural to industrial use
• 55,000 bopd refinery
• proposed by California-based Meridian Energy Group Inc
• $900 million -- almost $1 billion
• location: just outside the town of Fryburg; Fryburg is about 5 miles west of Belfield
• location: about three miles from the edge of Theodore Roosevelt National Park 

Whiting has a huge presence in this area. Fryburg is also a major area for convergence of pipelines.

I would assume tax receipts are affected immediately upon rezoning.