Jill Schramm/MDN Turbine blades are stockpiled on Minot Area Development Corp. land in east Minot for a wind project in northwest North Dakota.

Expanding America’s capacity for wind energy doesn’t come without challenges.

Additional investment will be needed in transmission and emerging technologies, said John Hensley, vice president of research and analytics with the American Wind Energy Association.

“Transmission is definitely a key focal point for the industry moving forward. We need to see additional investment in the infrastructure, and it needs to be on a large scale,” he said. “It can’t just be small regional upgrades or expansion lines. We also need to think about inter-regional ties that really move power from this great wind resource that we have in the middle part of the country out towards the coast, where a lot of the energy demand is.”

Challenges exist in getting transmission lines permitted and sited, especially when crossing multiple states, Hensley said. Having a federal or other centralized authority to facilitate the process will be necessary if the country is to see the scale of investment that is possible, he said.

Transmission is key to smoothing out variation with an intermittent power source, Hensley added. With an adequate transmission system, the grid can shift among wind suppliers to maintain its delivery.

“Storage is another great solution to that. We continue to see storage costs come down rapidly, increasingly making that technology economically viable,” he said. Great River Energy is experimenting with a 150-megawatt-hour battery storage solution, which is revolutionary because most batteries on the grid are four hours, he said.

Another hurdle facing the wind industry relates to sizing of projects, particularly around populated areas. The growth in off-shore wind energy production could pay a role in addressing that concern, Hensley said.

Companies have encountered other hurdles in North Dakota. NextEra developed the Northern Divide Wind Project after concerns about wildlife impact prompted the Public Service Commission to deny a permit to its originally proposed Burke Wind. Southern Power’s Ruso Wind in Ward and McLean counties has been hampered by the limited technologies available to meet a state requirement to reduce impact from blinking turbine lights. The company’s initial proposal using existing technology raised security concerns related to Minot Air Force Base helicopter flights. Ruso Wind now has postponed the project until after the 2021 legislative session.

Some of the challenges facing wind energy have been overcome with new technology. Combined with improved siting techniques, larger wind turbines can generate 27 times more electricity than older versions. The average wind turbine deployed in 2019 will produce enough electricity to power more than 900 typical American homes, AWEA reported.

Efficiencies and improved manufacturing have helped drop the cost of wind power by 70% over the past decade, according to AWEA.

The reliability and cost savings with wind has drawn corporate buyers, who accounted for 40% of power purchase agreements signed in 2019. AT&T and Walmart were two of the year’s top three largest wind buyers. Among newcomers were oilfield services provider Baker Hughes, multinational cosmetics manufacturer Estee Lauder and McDonald’s, the first fast-food restaurant brand to buy wind power.

“That’s been a helpful demand driver for the industry,” Hensley said of corporate contracts. “It boosts the pool of customers that are looking to use our product to power their activities, but I also think it captures a sign of the times – of the consumer base really embracing renewable energy, so much so that they’re demanding the companies that they are buying products from to be building those projects.”