North Dakota officials celebrate wind energy project

North Dakota Lt. Gov. Drew Wrigley joined U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp and other state officials Thursday celebrating the completion of a major wind energy farm north of New Salem, northwest of Bismarck, by Allete, Inc. parent company of Duluth-based Minnesota Power.

"With the completion of this major project, North Dakota's wind energy farms have the capacity to generate about 1,600 megawatts of electricity," Wrigley said, according to a news release from the governor's website. "That's good news for North Dakota and the entire nation. I applaud Minnesota Power's investment in North Dakota's wind energy industry and I look forward to the continued development of all of our energy resources."

Industry experts say the total of 991 wind turbines now operating in North Dakota produce about 40 percent of capacity in terms of megawatt-hours of electrical power.

Wrigley says the state's wind power capacity has spiked with the addition of new turbines placed in south-central North Dakota by Allete. Most of the power goes to northern Minnesota.

Since 2010, the company has installed 101 turbines with the capacity of 292 megawatts of electricity. A megawatt is roughly enough electricity to power 1,000 homes.

By neglecting to discuss the main threat to the biodiversity on this planet — climate change — the recent article by Associated Press reporter Dina Cappiello ("Wind farms get pass") offered an incomplete analysis of the interaction between wind power and wildlife.

As a nonpolluting electricity source, wind energy is one of the most readily available, easily scalable solutions for mitigating climate change. Having studied the interactions between avian populations and wildlife for two decades in over 20 states, I can say that the article ignored multiple sources that accurately estimate the wind industry's impact on birds and neglected to place wind power-related avian fatalities in the context of other anthropomorphic sources of bird deaths.

No human activity is free of environmental impacts. Although wind power's net benefit is overwhelmingly positive, the wind energy industry has set itself apart from other energy industries by working with environmental groups, as well as government, to reduce its impacts. Any wildlife effects wind turbines do have can be limited through responsible siting, habitat conservation and managing wind farms according to the best science.

Unlike other, larger sources of eagle mortality, the industry is acknowledging its impacts and is working with stakeholders on a sustainable path forward. If we are going to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change, responsibly sited and operated wind power must be part of the solution.