Montana leads the nation in wind energy power potential and the state is at the center of North America's wind heartland. Wind energy is clean and renewable and provides the green complement to Montana's world-class reserves of coal as well as oil and natural gas. Much of Montana's wind has yet to be tapped and represents a great investment opportunity.
Wind Energy Objectives
- Support all types of wind development from large scale wind farms to distributed generation serving individual farms, businesses and homes.
- Combine clean renewable wind with conventional and advanced fossil power sources into a "green" energy package.
- Create a domestic energy production economy in America's heartland working toward the national goal of energy independence.
- Advance the construction of electric transmission lines connecting wind resources in Montana to load centers in the western and eastern electric interconnections.
Wind Energy Assets
- Montana's vast wind resource is rated number one in the nation for class 3 wind and above.
- Almost unlimited sites available on federal, state, and private lands.
- The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation has programs for wind energy exploration and development on State School Trust Land.
- Most wind sites are located in low population areas, where it's easier to avoid visual and other conflicts, where folks welcome wind energy projects and need economic development.
- Montana's Department of Environmental Quality has been gathering wind data and is an excellent source of information. Visit http://www.energizemontana.com/ for wind information.
- Some counties such as Cascade County offer developers GIS based maps depicting the wind resource classes, roads, transmission lines, property ownership and topography. Their officials stand ready to make land owners introductions and to do what it takes to help developers turn prospects into projects.
Wind Projects
Two wind projects have gone on line since 2005; the Horseshoe Bend project (9MW in Cascade County) and the Judith Gap project (135 MW in Wheatland County) moved Montana from a ranking of 50th to 15th in the nation in wind energy output. Numerous smaller distributed wind energy projects are dispersed across the state. Other large scale developments include:- Jefferson County: 35 MW
- Stillwater County: 400-500 MW
- Glacier County: 175 MW
- Toole County: 120 MW
- Meagher/Wheatland Counties: 50-100 MW
Environmental Considerations
- Avian studies show impacts to birds can be mitigated.
- Visual objections? Not many. Wind resources are located where visual impacts are minimal due to the relatively small population nearby.
- Wind energy is clean, renewable, and produces zero green house gases (GHG's).
- Market demand for "green" power is growing -- California will need an additional 21,000MW of electricity by 2025 and the West as a whole 30,000MW by 2015 and is legally demanding that imported electricity be "green" with the adoption of a GHG standard in 2005.
- Governor Schweitzer was the nation's first governor to endorse the national 25 x '25 initiative; a grass roots effort gaining widespread bipartisan support to pass federal legislation requiring 25% of US energy demand be supplied by renewable energy by 2025. He endorses coordinated permitting processes among state agencies and designates one lead agency to spearhead the State review process. He also encourages multi-state and state/federal cooperative agreements to streamline permitting of multi-jurisdictional transmission lines and wind projects.
Transmission to Market
- Additional corridors on federal and private lands are currently being identified through federal processes.
- All existing transmission lines, from 69 kV to 500 kV, are mapped and available.
- Transmission expansion serving wind can also serve other power needs.
- The Bonneville Power Administration is planning upgrades to its transmission lines from Montana to the Pacific Northwest that will add 750 MW of capacity.
New export paths are being planned:
- Montana Alberta Tie (600 MW)
- Northern Lights Transmission Project (3,000/6,000 MW)
- Mountain States Transmission Intertie (1,000 MW)
- Frontier Project (3,000 MW)