National Grid Renewables announced the start of operation at its Wild Springs Solar Project in Pennington County, South Dakota. According to the press release, this will be the largest solar project in South Dakota to date.
Wild Springs is a 128 MW solar project located in the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) with a 114 MW Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Basin Electric Power Cooperative.
Last summer, Wild Springs celebrated its groundbreaking with a “Solar Does Good” community event, which highlighted the many benefits for local and state communities. The project is anticipated to provide approximately $29.5 million in direct economic impact over the first 20 years of operations, including $12 million in new tax revenue over the same time period. Additionally, Wild Springs plans to contribute $500,000 in charitable giving to the local New Underwood school district over the first 20 years of operations.
Stated in the release, Wild Springs is anticipated to avoid 190,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually – the equivalent to removing roughly 42,000 cars from the road for one year. The project will also generate enough clean, homegrown energy to provide the equivalent electrical usage of an estimated 37,000 homes each year, or 740,000 homes over the first 20 years of operation.
