130 mph straight line winds devastate South Dakota wind farm – Oklahoma Energy Today

Oklahoma didn’t suffer any strong wind damage this week, but wind farms in South Dakota certainly did.

Several wind turbines were toppled by the 130 MPH winds that hit the central part of the state Monday morning. They were described as straight line winds and not tornadoes. But the winds compared to those recorded in some tornadoes.

The 131-mph wind was recorded at Holabird in Hyde County at 6:15 a.m. local time.

A picture of the extensive damage showed at least 7 of the wind towers were bent over by the powerful Mother Nature.

According to a report by Energy News Beat, storm chaser Jakob McMillin documented the scene in a widely shared post on X (formerly Twitter), showing multiple wind turbine towers collapsed or heavily damaged, with blades and structural debris scattered across the prairie. In replies to his post, McMillin stated he observed “over 20” turbines destroyed or critically damaged.

The Affected Wind Farm

The damaged facility is the South Dakota Wind Energy Center (also known as the Highmore Wind Energy Project or Highmore Wind Farm), located approximately 10 miles south of Highmore.

• Number of turbines: 27
• Turbine model: GE Vernova 1.5s (1.5 MW each)
• Total nameplate capacity: 40.5 MW
• Commissioning year: 2003 (South Dakota’s first major wind farm)
• Owner/Operator: NextEra Energy Resources (formerly FPL Energy)
• Power purchaser: Basin Electric Power Cooperative