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More and more South Dakotans are becoming interested in generating energy for
their own use, whether by wind turbine, solar panel or some other technology.
The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission encourages common sense
development of distributed generation and in June 2009 proposed a five-part "Small
Renewable Energy Initiative."
1. Reducing
Ongoing Taxes
In recent years, our state has twice reduced property taxes on large wind projects to encourage their construction in South Dakota. This bill provides similar incentives to smaller projects, allowing any project 5 MW or less to exempt the first $50,000 of assessed value or 70 percent of the assessed value, whichever is greater, from property tax. The effect would be that many small residential turbines would pay no property tax.
Review the
legislation.
2. Ensuring a Fair Price
Many South Dakotans with distributed generation are interested in selling
excess power to their local utility company. This bill requires the electric utility to file with the commission rates for purchases of electricity produced by small renewable power facilities. The rates will be posted on the PUC's Web site.
Review the legislation.
3. Improving
Interconnection
Because of a variety of safety and engineering concerns, connecting to the grid
has never been an easy task. In attempt to simplify the process the PUC, over
the last two years, has developed a streamlined and uniform set of
interconnection standards required to be used by public utilities within the
state. This component of the Small Renewable Energy Initiative would call on
the commission to monitor (and when appropriate, improve) those streamlined
procedures. The commission would also work with other utilities not affected by
the current rules in an attempt to further standardize the procedures
statewide.
Review the interconnection rules.
4. Promoting Smart Siting
Many local governments haven't yet developed expertise in siting wind turbines.
The result can sometimes be local rules that create an unintended barrier to
wind development. That's why last year the PUC worked with a variety of
stakeholders to develop a model wind siting ordinance, which can be implemented
at the city or county level. The ordinance addresses setbacks, noise,
decommissioning, and other important siting topics. Although some local
governments have adopted the model ordinance, the commission would like to see
the ordinances adopted in more jurisdictions across the state.
Review the model
wind ordinance.
A fifth component of the Small Renewable Energy Initiative, legislation to refund portions of the contractors excise tax on small renewable projects, was defeated by the 2010 legislature. | 
