With a $250 million price tag and a dozen years to complete, Xcel Energy’s Border Winds Farm in North Dakota was recently dedicated.
Located north of Rolla, the farm has 75 turbines spread over 30 square miles and has the capacity to produce 150 megawatts of electricity. That’s enough to power more than 78,000 homes.
Xcel Energy, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota is paying nearly $13 million in lease payments to landowners over the next 20 years. It points out that the farm will generate more than $600,000 in local taxes every year.
North Dakota ranked 11th in the nation last year for wind power in the U.S.