Turbines Cropping Up at Huge Montana Wind Farm

By Matthew Frank, 7-18-08

	Caption: Judith Gap

Spain-based NaturEner officially (not literally) broke ground Thursday on the first phase of a 210-megawatt wind farm on the hills between Cut Bank and Shelby, the Great Falls Tribune reports.

The $500 million, 140-turbine wind farm, the first phase of which is scheduled to be completed by October, will be Montana’s largest. The only other of similar scale is Judith Gap (at 135 MW).

NaturEner might build an additional 200 turbines, but that—and a handful of other wind projects around the state—is contingent on the Montana Alberta Tie Line (MATL) being approved. Montana, with all its wind energy potential, is sorely lacking the transmission capacity to get it to market.

The governor was on hand Thursday. He said, “Wind energy means that’s American energy, produced in Montana with Montana workers.”

The electricity is California-bound.