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Buffalo Ridge Wind Farm is a large wind farm near Lake Benton, Minnesota that is located on the geological Buffalo Ridge. == History == In 1994, a Minnesota legislative mandate increased the demand for wind power in Minnesota. Buffalo Ridge's geography is well suited for wind power and it has been heavily developed for this purpose. The history of modern wind power activity on Buffalo Ridge can be split into four phases of construction. In 1994, the first wind farm cluster was built on Buffalo Ridge, northwest of the town of Lake Benton. This first cluster was built by the Kenetech Corporation and runs northwest to Lake Shaokatan; it consists of seventy-three wind turbines. The second phase occurred in 1998 when Zond Energy Systems built the next wind farm cluster near Hendricks, Minnesota. This farm consists of 143 Zond Z-750 wind turbines with each turbine standing 257 feet (78 m) high and weighing about 196,000 pounds (89,000 kg). Each 750 kW turbine can deliver the annual electricity needs of approximately 250 homes. The third phase occurred in mid-1999 and added an additional one hundred megawatts of power to the existing output. In 2006, PPM Energy and Xcel Energy began construction of a one hundred and fifty megawatt project called the MinnDakota Wind Power Project.〔PPM Energy, ("PPM breaks ground on MinnDakota wind farm for Xcel Engergy" )〕 This project adds sixty-seven more wind turbines to the Buffalo Ridge wind farm. It also adds turbines to the portion of Buffalo Ridge that is in Brookings County, South Dakota. The land where the wind farm resides is privately owned farm land. To acquire a piece of this land for the use of wind turbines, the wind developer rents or leases the plot of land from the farmer who owns the land. Small projects, less than two megawatts in size, are offered subsidies of 1.5 cents per kilowatt-hour for power sold to utilities. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Buffalo Ridge Wind Farm」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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