Company wants to operate 75 wind turbines just north of Tioga in Oil Patch 

“Lindahl Township has 285 oil wells,” wrote Joel Vagts and Stephanie Vagts, residents of Tioga, in a letter to the planning and zoning board last week. “For safety reasons, please do not allow wind turbines closer to oil well pads. It’s like putting the wick in a stick of dynamite.”

Landowner study

Historically, a group of landowners formed Lindahl Wind Farm, LLC after a decade of exploration in 2010 to develop the project, according to the board’s staff report and a company presentation.

Lindahl Wind Project bought the assets of Lindahl Wind Farm in 2014 and began assessing 48,806 acres before refining the project to 13,000 acres and limiting the area to Lindahl, Sauk and Tioga townships. One parcel remains in Tioga Township, but it will sit without a turbine. All participating landowners have signed Wind Energy Easement Agreements.

The Lindahl Wind Project executed a power purchase agreement with Bismarck-based Basin Electric Power Cooperative, the power supplier for Williams, Mountrail and Burke counties, according to the board’s staff report and the company presentation.

Tradewind Energy Inc., of Kansas, purchased the project in 2014 and has been developing it for Enel Green Power North America Inc., of Massachusetts, which will eventually own and operate the project. The Lindahl Wind Project has since become a wholly owned subsidiary of the EGP.

“I will admit this is a huge project,” said Brice Barton, senior project development manager at Tradewind Energy, who previously submitted a 1,000-page conditional use permit and variance application to the Williams County Development Services. In response to concerns about building turbines near oil wells, he added: “We have coordinated with oil and gas. A majority of our wind farms are built in oil and gas territory, so we’ve worked with them before.”

The $250 million “lightning protected” project will serve regional electricity demands, said Barton, who cited engineering firm Bismarck-based KLJ’s prediction for the North Dakota Transmission Authority: From 2012 to 2032, the 43 counties within the oil-rich Williston Basin will require 2,512 megawatts of additional electrical generation.

“We are addressing the tremendous growth in our region in a number of ways,” said Paul Sukut, CEO and general manager at Basin Electric in a statement. “Purchased power is one of them. The contract with Tradewind Energy will complement our resource mix and help ensure the lowest cost energy for our members.”

Tradewind Energy has found support from township officials, including supervisors from the Lindahl Township and Tioga Township, who have publicly disclosed financial interests in the project.

Robert Harms, the former North Dakota Republican party chairman, lobbied on the project’s behalf during the 2015 legislative session. Harms, who was replaced earlier this month as the GOP chairman, is a Bismarck attorney and former legal adviser to former Govs. Ed Schafer and John Hoeven. “I like the fact that we have power coming to this region that we need,” Harms told the planning and zoning board.

The entire project would earn $701,994 worth of annual wind farm tax and more than $17.5 million over the next 25 years for state and county coffers, township general funds, school districts and other county expenses, Barton said. Construction could start in late 2015 and begin operations in December 2016.

“We’re all in this together as farmers, ranchers and neighbors,” said Jerol Gohrick, a resident and board supervisor in Lindahl Township who voted for approval of the variance after disclosing a financial interest in the project.

“This project is the chance for a lot of people to get an income that comes back to them as landowners,” said Tim Sundhagen, a resident of Tioga who farms his land in the project area. “These people have had to bear the burden of what’s going on around here, and this is there chance.”

When Kalil asked the financial return to landowners, Sundhagen responded: “It’s enough to make it worthwhile. It’s significant.”

Landowners opposed

Several landowners in opposition told the planning and zoning board not to forget Tradewind Energy and eventually Enel Green Power North America will receive millions of dollars in state-initiated tax incentives.

“I do not want to pay that money,” said Todd Beasley, a resident of Tioga, who added that he was “not against wind farms” but urged the board to vote against the variance request.

Tradewind Energy did not shy from admitting the “industry is subsidized.” “The result for the local people here is the power’s cheap,” Barton said. “It’s windier here than almost anywhere in the United States… There’s no place that needs power like this place right here.”

In a letter submitted to the board, Beasley wrote: “Wouldn’t it be nice to have been at the beginning of [oil development] knowing what we know now? We are at the beginning stages of [building the wind farm] here in Williams County and wouldn’t it be nice if we set standards that our next generation can look back at and say we were ahead of the curve? Not look back and be ashamed of these decisions.”

In her own letter submitted last week, Mary Hoseth, a resident of Lindahl Township, told the board she was a 70-year-old widow wanting to retire someday from her position at Hess Corporation in Tioga. “I am having a hard time figuring out why some people are opposed to this, as I think that having a clean alternate source of power is about as good as it gets. At least we do not have to worry about salt water or oil spills,” Hoseth wrote. “It would be nice to actually be able to get something in place before we actually need it instead of having to play catch up when power does become a problem.”