Turbines generating dreams for tribe

By Lisa Chamley, Pierre Capital Journal | Friday, June 27, 2003

Previous Page

Share

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• NewsVine
• Fark

Print

Email

On the Rosebud Sioux reservation, a wind turbine project is generating dreams of clean energy and economic progress for an American Indian tribe.

"The wind is a gift and a blessing; that's how we feel about this," Pat Spears, a consultant for the tribe, said. "It's a natural gift from the creator, and it should be used more, same as the sun, same as solar power, same as geothermal power."

In late February, the turbine was installed near the Rosebud Casino and Hotel. On March 3, the blades that circle 190 feet into the air began generating enough electricity for at least 220 homes.

The turbine was the culmination of eight years of work. It was named in honor of Alex "Little Soldier" Lunderman, a former Rosebud Sioux president who died in 1999. Lunderman believed the tribe could use technology and natural-resources compatibly with tribal history, philosophy and values.

Basin Electric and Ellsworth Air Force Base are the turbine's first customers, the latter of which has a contract to buy energy from the turbine for five years.

"We're selling all of the power to Basin Electric," Spears said. "Part of that, the energy for 450 kilowatts, is going to Ellsworth, the remainder to Basin."

In addition to the energy, Ellsworth also bought "green tags," which are dollars spent on investments in clean-energy projects. The turbine has a life expectancy of 25 years.

The project was funded through a complicated combination of a matching grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, "green tag" purchases by Ellsworth and Native Energy, a Vermont company that promotes tribal energy projects and a loan from the U.S. Rural Utility Service.

The Rosebud Sioux turbine is one of the first American Indian-owned and operated turbines in the country and is also the first part of a plan to develop wind power on tribal lands throughout the Northern Plains.

That is the plan of the Intertribal Council On Utility Policy, of which Spears is president. Intertribal COUP consists of federally-recognized tribes in North and South Dakota and their affiliates throughout the plains. The organization is headquartered on the Rosebud reservation.

The second phase is a project at St. Francis, and the third phase for projects on as many as eight reservations has been chosen as an Environmental Justice Community Revitalization Group, which involves 15 federal agencies, according to Spears.

To move the energy it generates around to its markets, the tribe wants to use the transmission infrastructure already in place owned by the Western Area Power Administration.

"The need is in transmission buildout," Spears said. "We don't have the transmission capacity to move to the urban markets, that's the problem."

The tribe feels that the

WAPA system has the capacity for the additional energy generated.

Spears said Intertribal COUP has written a study on the possible merger of wind and hydropower in the Missouri River system.

In order to fulfill its energy contracts, WAPA now buys energy in the "spot market" when generation is low. Spears said WAPA should buy its backup energy from the tribes, rather than the high-priced spot market.

The reservations on the Northern Great Plains have the potential to generate more than 100 times what the dams on the Missouri River can generate.

"Just on tribal lands alone, that's the potential," Spears said. "If you look at all of the land in the Northern Plains, North and South Dakota, we could produce one-third of the energy needs of the entire U.S."

"The equipment is the cost, and it's an upfront cost, so it's known and decided," he said. "That price per kilowatt hour is known and can be projected for 20 to 30 years with no increase. No other source of fuel can claim that."

Coal-fired electricity accounts for most of the energy used in this part of the country, according to NativeEnergy.com.

Spears said fossil fuel costs will continue to rise.

The fuels are becoming more scarce and also negatively impact the environment.

"We're at the top of the headwaters of a large windshed. We want to see clean energy here, because we respect the earth. We want to maintain the balance," Spears said.

"We also want the economic benefit that can be recognized with wind energy."

Fossil fuels should be used to back up wind energy and other clean-energy sources such as geothermal energy, not vice versa, he said.

"It's all there if we put it together right and get serious about development," Spears said.

The wind energy business can employ people on the reservations and boost the economy in one of the country's most depressed areas.

According to NativeEnergy.com, more than 14 percent of American Indian households are without electricity, which is 10 times the national average.

"We see wind energy producing jobs and other opportunities," Spears said. "The economics of wind can work."