44,000-acre Xcel Energy South Dakota wind farm begins powering over 150,000 homes

Makenzie Huber, Sioux Falls Argus Leader
·2 min read

Xcel Energy announced Wednesday that its new eastern South Dakota wind farm is now in service and is powering more than 150,000 homes to customers in the Upper Midwest, according to a news release.

The Dakota Range I and II Wind Farm covers 44,000 acres across Codington, Grant and Deuel Counties about 20 miles north of Watertown. Xcel Energy closed on the land in 2018 and started construction in 2020 with Minnesota-based Mortensen Construction handling wind farm construction.

With 72 wind turbines, the wind farm can generate 300 megawatts of electricity, delivering enough renewable energy to power about 157,000 homes, the release said.

The wind farm is a move toward carbon-free energy for the company. Overall, Xcel estimates that more than 60% of the energy provided to customers in the Upper Midwest is carbon free, with more than 20% coming from wind energy.

More: Xcel Energy commits to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050 with help from South Dakota wind farms

At the end of 2020, Xcel Energy became one of the first energy providers in the United States to reach 10,000 megawatts of wind energy capacity online for customers in the states it serves.

“We continue to lead the clean energy transition and pave the way for wind energy in the country by adding more clean, renewable energy to our system, saving customers money and driving local economies," said Chris Clark, president of Xcel Energy in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, in a statement.

Since 2017, the company has added about 2,000 megawatts of new or rebuilt wind energy to the Xcel Energy Upper Midwest wind portfolio, enough to power more than 945,000 average homes.

Over the life of the project, Dakota Range is expected to generate $37 million in property taxes and $62 million in landowner payments, according to the news release. The project created eight full-time jobs and employed more than 200 people during peak construction.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Xcel's eastern South Dakota wind farm in Watertown is operational