The Rushmore Plaza Civic Center is partnering with Black Hills Energy in Rapid City to meet 100 percent of the Civic Center’s power needs with renewable energy by Fall of 2020.
The move is part of Black Hills Energy’s new Renewable Ready program intended to provide wind generated power to organizations in Wyoming and western South Dakota that have large scale energy needs.
Tracy Heitsch is the Deputy Director of the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. She says they have been working with Black Hills Energy since they were approached regarding a new wind farm project.
Heitsch says the board of directors took immediate interest in the possibility of moving to renewable energy. She says this is the right energy option for the future of the Civic Center.
“As we look to expand the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center and our footprint, with our new project – our expansion project that’s going to be cutting into the ground, here in the next couple of months – we were really interested in continuing to be as efficient as we possibly could and have a greener footprint moving into the future,” says Heitsch
She says the Civic Center is not currently running on any renewable energy, but they have implemented energy saving measures, such as installing LEDs in place of traditional lighting.
Bret Jones is the regional manager of business development for South Dakota and Wyoming at Black Hills Energy.
Jones says they are scheduled to begin producing renewable energy in the fourth quarter of 2020.
He says they started development of the Renewable Ready program more than a year ago after seeing strong interest in the business community.
“This was really our desire to create a product for the Civic Center and other customers that, again, was close to cost neutral but would allow them to secure renewable energy without having to install their own system, without having to worry about maintaining their own system,” says Jones.
Jones says the Civic Center can switch to renewable energy without installing additional infrastructure to support it.