State utility regulators in North Dakota turned down a request by a unit of NextEra Energy Resources to build a 200 megawatt wind farm, citing its potential impact on wetlands and wildlife.

In its 25-page decision, regulators cited a March 2019 letter from North Dakota wildlife officials who said that the project developer "could not have picked a worse spot in the state" in terms of potential negative impacts to prairie and wetland wildlife species.

In addition, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said that although NextEra proposed to reduce the project's size from 300 MW to 200 MW and shift the project away from Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge, "the project is still located in an area of high resource value, and significant impacts to those resources are still anticipated."

The federal agency recommended relocating the project to an area with fewer natural resources at stake, "preferably an area dominated by crop ground."

According to the regulatory decision, the developer, Burke Wind, said "it is unclear how the project should be deemed best of the best." The developer cited the Minot Wind Site, the Tonka, Dakota Wind and a site near Rugby, North Dakota, as similar locations with respect to wetland-grassland mix.

Burke Wind also said that disturbance to native prairie would be avoided where possible. It said that by reducing the project size from 300 MW to 200 MW, the impact on native prairie would be "substantially mitigated." Burke Wind testified that a total of 5.8 acres of native prairie would be permanently disturbed by the 200 MW layout.

GE turbines and transmission

In its application to the North Dakota Public Service Commission, Burke Wind proposed a wind project consisting of up to 76 wind turbines with a nameplate generating capacity of up to 200 MW.

Burke Wind proposed using both General Electric (GE) 2.72 MW and 1.715 MW wind turbine generators. The GE 2.72 MW wind turbines would have a 295 ft hub height and measure 485.5 ft from the base of the tower to the tip of the upright blade. The GE 1.715 wind turbines would have a 262 ft hub height and measure 431.5 ft from the base of the tower to the tip of the upright blade. The portion of above-ground foundation would be 16 to 18 ft wide at the tower base.

Burke Wind also proposed that the power from the wind turbines would be run through an underground 34.5 kilovolt (kV) collection system. The collection system would terminate at collector substations where voltage would be stepped up from 34.5 kV to transmission line voltages for interconnection to the transmission grid.

The developer also proposed to build a 37 mile long 345 kV electric transmission line and associated facilities, which would have originated at the wind project and ended at an interconnection with an existing Basin Electric Power Cooperative substation.