ALLETE Clean Energy wind facility in North Dakota begins operations

ALLETE Clean Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of ALLETE, announced Tuesday that its Glen Ullin Energy Center approximately 40 miles west of Bismarck, N.D., began producing power for Xcel Energy customers in the Upper Midwest.

“Today our team celebrates [the] completion of the latest wind site that ALLETE Clean Energy has developed, built, and will own and operate,” ALLETE Clean Energy President Allan S. Rudeck Jr. said. “I would like to thank the North Dakota policymakers and area landowners who supported this investment. North Dakota’s ‘all-of-the-above’ energy policy strengthens local economies through projects like Glen Ullin and has made the state a national energy leader.”

The 106-megawatt wind facility consists of 43 2.3- and 2.5-megawatt General Electric turbines. It will employ approximately 10 people during operation and provide lease payments to landowners, ALLETE said.

“Wind energy in the Upper Midwest will help us deliver low-cost, carbon-free electricity to our customers and is part of our plan to reduce carbon emissions 80 percent by 2030,” Chris Clark, president of Xcel Energy-Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, said. “As a wind energy leader for more than a decade, projects like Glen Ullin bring investments to North Dakota while also keeping bills low for our customers.”

Glen Ullin Energy Center is the third North Dakota wind expansion project that ALLETE Clean Energy developed and built, and the first it will own and operate. ALLETE is the second-largest investor in renewable energy in the U.S. and Canada as a percentage of market capitalization.