Up to $6 million in tax rebates approved for South Dakota’s largest wind project

South Dakota’s Board of Economic Development voted Tuesday to authorize up to $6.1 million in tax rebates for the state’s largest wind energy project. 

The $750 million, 333-megawatt wind farm will span about 110 square miles of private land, located north of Philip and 85 miles east of Rapid City. State regulators described the project as the state’s largest wind facility when they approved a permit Feb. 12 for Philip Wind Partners, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Invenergy. Plans call for up to 87 turbines and 5.5 miles of electrical transmission line.

The Governor’s Office of Economic Development said Tuesday that construction has begun on the project, which is expected to become operational in 2028.

The company applied for the state’s Reinvestment Payment Program, which provides a rebate on sales taxes paid to upgrade equipment or build a new facility or expansion in South Dakota. The program is limited to building projects over $20 million or equipment upgrades over $2 million. 

South Dakota regulators approve wind farm that will be the largest in the state

According to the wind project’s regulatory application, it will create about 200 construction jobs and 12 long-term jobs. Over the next 30 years, the company anticipates paying about $85 million to landowners, $50 million in property taxes, and $10 million in other state and local taxes.

The board also approved a sales tax rebate of up to $8,845.87 for OmegaQuant Analytics from the state’s New Frontiers program, which supports qualifying research and clinical trials. OmegaQuant is a Sioux Falls lab that offers nutritional status testing to researchers, clinicians and the public. 

The board’s agenda said the rebate is for “a new or adapted research method, process, product or technology under approval by a federal authority.” The Governor’s Office of Economic Development later said, in response to South Dakota Searchlight questions, that OmegaQuant has been awarded a $320,864 National Eye Institute grant through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to “develop blood fatty-acid-based algorithms for the early prediction of macular degeneration and glaucoma, with the potential to create new commercially viable testing tools developed and offered from South Dakota.”

The office said OmegaQuant has 12 employees in South Dakota and estimates adding eight jobs over the next five years.