Geronimo Energy and Basin Electric Power Cooperative announced today the execution of a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for the Wild Springs Solar Project. Wild Springs is a 128 megawatt (MW) clean solar energy project located in Pennington County, South Dakota. Wild Springs is anticipated to begin operations in 2022. Using the EPA's greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator, the project is estimated to offset carbon dioxide emissions by 190,000 metric tons annually.
Once operational, Wild Springs will be the largest solar project in South Dakota. It will be located in the service area of West River Electric Association, Inc., which is a distribution electric cooperative member of Basin Electric. In South Dakota, Basin Electric transmits its power supply to two generation and transmission (G&T) cooperatives, Rushmore Electric Power Cooperative and East River Electric Power Cooperative. Those two G&T cooperatives then transmit the power supply to their respective distribution cooperatives, with Rushmore Electric being the G&T provider to West River Electric. West River Electric and the state's 27 other distribution co-ops power the homes, farms, and businesses within their service areas.
Current estimations for the project's economic benefits total more than $17 million throughout the first 20 years of operation.
