Minnesota Power, a division of Allete, has started operations at phase four of the Bison wind complex in North Dakota, the US.
Bison 4 has power generation capacity of 205MW, which raises the entire capacity of the complex to 500MW, turning it to be the largest wind farm in the state.
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The entire project is equipped with 165 wind turbines, out of which 64 turbines are part of the phase 4 development.
Developed by Siemens, each turbine installed for the phase has a generation capacity of 3.4MW.
Minnesota Power’s retail customer base in the in north-eastern parts of the state will receive the power generated at the site.
Energy transmission will be done through a 465-mile (748km) line running between Center, North Dakota and Duluth, Minnesota.
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By GlobalDataConstruction for the phase was initiated by the end of 2013.
Around 14 miles of new roads were built and 11 miles of existing roads were upgraded for the project, which required an investment of $345m.
Besides construction of a new electric substation, 55 miles of collector cables have also been installed for the western side of Bison 4.
Expansion of an existing substation, a new meteorological tower and 11 miles of new 230-kilovolt transmission line were also undertaken as part of the project.
Allete chairman, president and CEO Al Hodnik said: "Development of renewable energy from wind and water is rapidly transforming our nation’s energy landscape and with the addition of nearly 500 megawatts of wind from the Bison development on our system, we are providing cleaner energy while maintaining the affordability and reliability of electric power our customers in northeastern Minnesota expect."
Minnesota Power chief operating officer Brad Oachs said: "With this substantial addition of wind to our portfolio, we are meeting Minnesota’s renewable standard of 25 percent renewable energy by 2025, a decade early."
