DOE Honors Minnkota Power Cooperative with 2010 Wind Cooperative of the Year Award

Date: 3/11/2011

The U.S. Department of Energy's Wind Program, through its Wind Powering America initiative, announced that Minnkota Power Cooperative has received the 2010 Wind Cooperative of the Year Award. The award was presented at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) TechAdvantage Conference in Orlando, Florida. This 10th annual award honors the North Dakota-based NRECA member for its outstanding leadership, innovation, project creativity and benefits to customers resulting from North Dakota's first utility-owned wind turbine and its other investments wind power. The cooperative was selected for the honor from a group of eight nominees nationwide.

Minnkota Power Cooperative has executed wind energy power purchase agreements (with FPL Energy, among others) which guarantee that energy from several wind projects will be purchased and used. These wind projects include 99 megawatts (MW) from the Langdon wind project, 40.5 MW from the Langdon II project, and 217.5 MW from the Ashtabula wind farm. Collectively these projects are expected to contribute an average of nearly 1,300 gigawatt-hours per year to the grid. These wind investments represent more than 30 % of Minnkota Power Cooperative's total member energy requirements.

DOE's Wind Powering America initiative sponsors the Wind Cooperative of the Year Award, in partnership with NRECA. A panel of wind industry, utility, government, National Laboratory, and cooperative experts evaluate the nominees for the final award. See the list of past recipients of the award. For more information on DOE's Wind Powering America outreach and stakeholder engagement initiative, please visit the Wind Powering America website.