Hometown Wind Power

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During the winter of 2009 to 2010 a Wind Turbine was erected east of East Grand Forks on Highway 2, near the East Grand Forks Water and Light substation. This wind turbine is owned by the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (MMPA). MMPA is an agency that provides electricity to 11 member communities, including East Grand Forks. Those members then deliver and sell that electricity to residential and business customers in their communities.

In 2006, MMPA began an ambitious project called Hometown Wind Power, to locate wind turbines within all 11 of their member communities. Each MMPA community can take pride in this meaningful action to create power that is carbon-free and renewable. Hometown Wind Power will serve the people who own their local utility and keep the economic and environmental benefits local.

Each Hometown Wind Power turbine has a capacity of 160 kilowatts. The wind turbine will start putting kilowatts back into our system when the wind speed reaches about 12 mph, or 5 meters per second (m/s).

This system of turbines reflects MMPA's commitment to sustainable energy, and will help MMPA meet its state requirement to achieve a Renewable Energy Objective of 25% by 2025.

Construction of the Wind Turbine

Construction of a wind turbine
Construction workers building wind turbine

Oak Glen Wind Farm 

Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (MMPA), our power supplier has a wind farm called Oak Glen Wind Farm near Highway 218 about three miles northwest of Blooming Prairie, Minnesota and encompasses approximately 3,000 acres.

The purpose of the wind farm is to generate electricity from the endlessly renewable resource of wind power. The renewable power from Oak Glen Wind Farm will help MMPA meet the state requirements for 25% of electrical energy to be generated from renewable energy sources by 2025.

The wind farm consists of 24 wind turbines with a projected output of approximately 44 megawatts (MW). Each turbine occupies less than a half acre and they were positioned for maximum wind availability and minimum disruption for farming.

Oak Glen Wind Farm
Oak Glen Wind Farm 2