The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission approves a permit for a wind farm in Grant and Roberts counties.
Dakota Range Three will take root near the northeast South Dakota community of Summit. Commissioner Kristie Fiegen says travelers on Interstate 29 will see the towers. She says the PUC's agreement with project developer APEX has drivers in mind.
"This permit has 42 different conditions - and one of them actually is an aircraft detection system condition. They will not see the blinking lights unless there's an aircraft in the area. So, that's one of the conditions we have - we have conditions on sound, shadow, flicker. But, what was interesting about this docket, is that APEX worked really hard in the Summit community and those counties. And, they worked so hard in making the footprint pretty condensed and having a lot of participants, so we did not have any interveners."
Fiegen says the power generated from the wind farm will serve Xcel Energy customers.
PUC officials say in a statement that the Dakota Range Three project is set to come online by the end of next year.