Campbell County Wind Farm (SD)
Project Type: Wind Energy Center
Client: Fagen Engineering
Location: South Dakota
Project Synopsis
Fagen Engineering has been working on behalf of Dakota Plains Energy, to construct the Campbell County Wind Farm. The project area includes 59 possible turbine locations, but only 57 will be used. The turbines will utilize a 1.715-103 generator, and the wind farm will produce 98 MW of electricity. The project also includes an O & M building, substation, and a construction laydown area. Linking the turbines and creating access requires 25 miles of collector lines, 16 miles of access road construction, and 22 miles of crane paths.
The project was also analyzed for view and sound impacts on the Standing Rock Reservation. The results of these tests showed there would be no noise impact, and that the wind farm would only be visible to approximately 30% of the reservation; however, this percentage is likely less than 30%, because the analysis is based on terrain only, and other obstructions (such as tree coverage) would further prevent the wind farms visual impact.
The conclusion of these surveys revealed four stone feature sites that involved recommended avoidance distances and tribal monitoring. An agreement was made between the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, WAPA, and Fagen Engineering, LLC that all disturbances within grassland corridors would have a tribal monitor. Tribal monitoring included excavation of pads, boring collector lines, construction of access roads, and surface disturbances caused by crane use. Beaver Creek managed the tribal monitoring for the construction phase over a period of 5 months and produced the tribal monitoring report for submission to WAPA.