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Alex Little Soldier Wind Turbine

Alex Little Soldier Wind Turbine

The Alex Little Soldier Wind Turbine was built with NativeEnergy's financial support in the spring of 2003. The turbine is located near the town of Rosebud, on the Rosebud Sioux reservation in south-central South Dakota. Tribal officials see this first turbine as a start of an economic development initiative that will bring a vital industry to the reservation - a "show horse" with an educational mission. In addition to the support from our customers, the Rosebud single turbine project and plans for the wind farm were funded under a DOE grant and loan from the Rural Utility Service. Disgen, Inc. provided development services.

See construction and dedication photos.

"We appreciate NativeEnergy's help in getting this first turbine built, and we're excited about how their WindBuilders^sm program engages people in the fight against global warming by helping to build new wind farms."

--William Kindle, (then) President,
Rosebud Sioux Tribe

The Alex Little Soldier wind turbine is a 750 kilowatt (kW) NEG Micon wind turbine. The turbine stands atop a 170 foot tubular tower and has three blades, spanning a diameter of 150 feet. The gearbox and generator are located at the top of the tower in an enclosure known as a "nacelle." Cables transmit electricity generated by the wind turbines to a transformer at the base of the tower, and then to the local electric distribution line. The wind turbine begins generating electricity when wind speeds exceed 8 mph. It reaches its maximum 750 kW rating at 31 mph, and will shut down when wind speeds exceed 55 mph. The average wind speed at the site is estimated to be 17.9 mph at a 155 feet above ground, and the turbine is expected to produce about 2,400,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of clean electricity each year, enough to supply about 200 homes.

"The tremendous wind resources of the northern Great Plains have many Indian tribes looking at utility scale renewable energy generation as a "no-regrets" sustainable homeland economic development strategy, with a positive impact on CO₂ emission reductions. And the Rosebud Wind Project is leading the way in bringing tribal utility scale wind power on line."

-- Pat Spears, President, Intertribal COUP.

According to Bob Gough, the attorney who represented the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in connection with the project's development, "NativeEnergy's funding was approximately 25% of the cost of the Rosebud turbine. NativeEnergy's promise of additional revenue for the renewable energy credits, to be paid up front to the project once it achieved commercial operation, was a valuable component of the overall project financing and helped make it possible for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe to make the final decision to move ahead. As the project approached completion, it became clear that the payment from NativeEnergy was critical to both the coverage of costs associated with this first turbine and the work that the Tribe began for the expansion of wind development on the Rosebud Reservation."