Governor Schweitzer Announces another Montana Wind Farm is up and Running

Governor Brian Schweitzer announced today that the 9.6 MW Gordon Butte wind farm has recently completed construction and is now fully operational.

"Completion of the Gordon Butte wind farm is more good news for Montana. Big and small, Montana wind farms are developing and increasing the amount of clean and green energy produced from our world class wind resource. We’re now at 395 MW of installed wind generation capacity," said Governor Schweitzer.

The Gordon Butte announcement comes on the heels of the recent announcement by NaturEner USA that it is now under full construction of its 189 MW wind farm located near Shelby.

The Gordon Butte wind farm, located near Martinsdale is a 9.6 MW wind farm that has been developed by Oversight Resources, a Bozeman based developer, constructed by Dick Anderson Construction based in Helena, and financed by Stockman Bank of MT. It went fully operational on January 4 and has six GE wind turbines installed.

Because the project is locally owned and developed by Montana residents it is the first wind farm to qualify under a special provision in the Montana Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) as a "community wind project" that requires a total of 50 MW of "community wind" to be purchased by public utilities. NorthWestern Energy is purchasing the power under this PSC approved project.

Montana Wind Energy Facts:

* Montana had just 1 MW of wind power online in January 2005, and with the completion of the Rim Rock project, there will soon be 575 MW of wind power generated in the state.

* Montana is ranked #1 in wind potential for high quality winds of class 3 and above.

* Since 2005 including the Rim Rock project, $1.5 billion is being invested in Montana wind development.

* Montana has over 50 wind and transmission line projects in various stages of development across the state.