North Dakota Clean Energy Guide
North Dakota runs one of the most wind-dependent grids in America — 35.6% of its electricity comes from wind, solar and storage, eighth among states — yet it has no binding clean energy mandate, no operating utility-scale solar farm, and a siting fight that has moved from the statehouse to the county courthouse. This guide covers the policies, projects, and local politics shaping the state's next 5 gigawatts.
The headline numbers tell a story of quiet accumulation: roughly 5,000 MW of wind across 42 utility-scale projects, built with $11 billion in cumulative capital investment and paying rural communities $31.1 million a year in state and local taxes plus another $33.3 million in land lease payments. About 450 MW of that fleet is brand new, with Apex Clean Energy's Bowman Wind reaching commercial operation in December 2025 and Orsted's Badger Wind following in January 2026.
But the subtext matters more for developers. Coal still generates more than half of North Dakota's electricity, and the counties that host coal plants have learned to use zoning power to defend that tax base. At the same time, AI data centers are landing on the prairie faster than the legislature can study them. The result is a state with a world-class resource, a light-touch state regulator — and an increasingly assertive layer of county governments standing between the two.
Source: American Clean Power Association , 2026 fact sheet; EIA; Cleanview
Last updated: July 2, 2026
Grid Operators: Split Between MISO and SPP
North Dakota straddles two RTOs. MISO covers the territories of Otter Tail Power, Montana-Dakota Utilities, Great River Energy and Xcel Energy, with Minnkota Power Cooperative receiving similar services by agreement. The Western Area Power Administration and Basin Electric Power Cooperative belong to SPP, which OpenEI describes as the state's primary balancing authority, with MISO monitoring the eastern and northeastern side.
Policy: No Mandate, No Subsidy Fight — Just a Siting War
North Dakota is what a purely market-driven wind state looks like. There is no mandatory renewable portfolio standard or clean electricity standard — only a voluntary Renewable and Recycled Energy Objective from 2007 (HB 1506, codified at N.D. Cent. Code 49-02-24 et seq.) that called for 10% renewable or recycled electricity by 2015, carried no penalty, and set no target beyond that year. The 5 GW wind fleet got built anyway, on economics: federal tax credits, cheap land, and one of the best wind resources in the country.
The 2025 legislative session — the state legislature meets biennially, in odd years — quietly redrew the battle lines. The consequential bill was HB 1258, which amended the state Siting Act (N.D.C.C. 49-22-16(2)) to give PSC-approved energy conversion and transmission facilities primacy over conflicting local government rules. It passed the House 86-7 on January 30, 2025 and the Senate by a much tighter 27-18 on April 4, 2025, and was signed that month. The fight that produced it was over the JETx transmission project, but the precedent matters for every wind developer staring down a hostile county zoning board.
What Else Moved in 2025
- HB 1211 (signed March 18, 2025): Counts pre-2007 hydropower as renewable under state law — a definitional win for the state's legacy hydro fleet.
- HB 1414 (failed 29-55, February 14, 2025): Would have excluded CO2 pipelines and wind, solar and hydrogen projects from eminent domain. Its defeat signaled the House majority is not ready to kneecap energy infrastructure of any stripe.
- HB 1579 (signed April 28, 2025): Funds a 2025-26 interim study on the grid and economic impacts of large electricity customers — read: data centers — after lawmakers declined to create a state siting process for large loads. A separate bill that would have forced data centers through energy-facility permitting, HB 1427, was withdrawn on January 17, 2025.
- HB 1025 (signed April 16, 2025): Commissions a legislative study on advanced nuclear energy.
Incentives for Distributed and Utility-Scale Projects
- Net metering: PSC rule (N.D. Admin. Code 69-09-07-09) entitles qualifying facilities of 100 kW or less to net energy billing, with monthly net excess generation purchased at the utility's avoided-cost rate rather than retail — an exception to the more common annual retail-credit practice, and it only binds PSC-regulated investor-owned utilities. Co-ops and munis are exempt.
- Property tax exemption: A five-year local property tax exemption covers solar, wind or geothermal devices serving buildings or structures, including the energy storage portion (N.D.C.C. 57-02-08(27)), with annual application to the local assessor.
- No state income tax credit: The federal 30% ITC remains the main residential incentive.
Major Projects: A 5 GW Wind Fleet, and Finally Some Solar
North Dakota's project map is almost entirely wind — 42 operating utility-scale wind farms totaling 4,979 MW as of July 2026, per Cleanview — but the newest entries show the market broadening: out-of-state utilities buying North Dakota generation, and the state's first utility-scale solar farm inching toward construction.
Operating
- Aurora Wind Project (Williams/Mountrail Counties): 299 MW, 71 turbines, roughly 1.3 TWh per year — the state's largest single wind farm, owned by Enel Green Power and online since January 2021, with offtake including Basin Electric.
- Bison Wind Energy Center (Oliver/Morton Counties): Minnesota Power's ~500 MW, 165-turbine complex, operating for about a decade and serving Minnesota customers.
- Badger Wind (Logan/McIntosh Counties): Orsted's 250 MW project near Wishek, online January 2026 per Cleanview with full completion expected around mid-2026. Montana-Dakota Utilities holds a 150 MW offtake and ownership interest, and construction brought 200-300 workers into a town of about 950 people.
- Bowman Wind (Bowman County): Apex Clean Energy's 200 MW project, commercial operations in December 2025; permitted at roughly 209 MW with 74 GE 2.82 MW turbines.
- Oliver Wind IV (Oliver County): NextEra Energy Resources' 199 MW project, online December 2024.
In Development
- Longspur Wind (Morton County): Minnesota Power's 202.5 MW, up-to-45-turbine, ~$791 million project — construction planned for 2026, in service late 2027, and the state's highest-profile siting test case (more below).
- Flickertail Wind Farm (near New Rockford): 370 MW from PRC Wind, announced January 2025, with Minnkota Power Cooperative purchasing all output under a long-term agreement; construction is scheduled to begin by 2027.
- Harmony Solar (Cass County): The one to watch. This 200 MW, ~$320 million National Grid Renewables development west of Fargo would be North Dakota's first utility-scale solar farm — in a state with about 2 MW of installed solar, dead last in the nation. The PSC first approved it in 2019 and unanimously renewed its certificate in November 2024, with an in-service goal of 2028.
- Otter Tail Power solar (near Abercrombie): A 295 MW solar farm announced under an agreement with Flickertail Solar Project LLC — a second signal that utility-scale solar is finally coming to the state.
Siting: The PSC Says Yes, the Counties Say Slow Down
On paper, North Dakota siting is straightforward. The Public Service Commission issues certificates of site compatibility under the Energy Conversion and Transmission Facility Siting Act (N.D.C.C. ch. 49-22) for any wind facility over one-half megawatt and any other generation over 50 MW, holding a public hearing in each affected county. State setback criteria (N.D. Admin. Code 69-06-08-01) require 1.1 times turbine height from roads, rail, transmission lines and nonparticipating property lines, 3 times turbine height from an inhabited rural residence of a nonparticipating landowner, and a 45 dBA sound limit near homes.
In practice, projects need two approvals — the PSC's and the county's — and the county layer is where deals now die. Stark County adopted a 2,000-foot setback from homes and public buildings. McLean County imposed a mandatory turbine setback from the Missouri River and zoning that constrains the new power lines wind projects need. And the sharpest fight is in Morton County, where the zoning commission voted to reject Minnesota Power's Longspur Wind in fall 2025 — the zoning chair's verdict: the map is already "plum full of wind turbines" — before the county commission sought reconsideration. Longspur's PSC siting applications were filed in December 2025, with a consolidated public hearing held May 18, 2026 in Glen Ullin. Heatmap Pro rates Morton County's opposition risk at 92, and the county has separately imposed a moratorium on direct air capture facilities and banned future data center and cryptocurrency mining projects.
The distinctive driver here is not aesthetics — it's coal. Counties in coal country, including Mercer, McLean, Oliver and Morton, have used moratoria and zoning to protect the tax base of their coal plants against wind encroachment. The 2025 legislature declined to fully take sides: HB 1414's eminent-domain carve-out for wind and solar failed, but so did a Senate committee proposal to withhold infrastructure funds from local governments that oppose state-approved projects. HB 1258's state-primacy rule tilts the field toward developers, but as Longspur shows, a determined county can still cost a project a year or more. We track every county-level restriction and active dispute in our North Dakota opposition tracker.
Demand: AI Data Centers Land on the Prairie
The load side of North Dakota's ledger is transforming faster than the generation side. Applied Digital's Polaris Forge 1 campus in Ellendale reached its full 100 MW critical IT load in Building 1 on November 24, 2025 — the first tranche of a 400 MW deployment fully contracted to CoreWeave across three buildings. A second campus, the $3 billion, 280 MW Polaris Forge 2 in Harwood near Fargo, broke ground in September 2025 and targets initial capacity in 2026 and full capacity in early 2027, with more than 200 permanent jobs.
The North Dakota Transmission Authority's 2025 annual report calls the load growth "phenomenal," citing FERC's national five-year load-growth forecast rising almost fivefold — from 23 GW to 128 GW — on data centers and manufacturing. The report flags transmission congestion around Watford City and Williston and in southeast North Dakota, and notes that Coal Creek Station under Rainbow Energy has already integrated 205 MW of interruptible on-site load. SPP has recommended major new lines, including a 439-mile, 345 kV Belfield-to-Laramie River project. For now, the state's regulatory answer is a study, not a rulebook: HB 1579's interim review of large-load impacts, after lawmakers passed on creating a data center siting process in 2025.
Utility procurement is following the load. Minnesota Power's parent ALLETE is putting Longspur inside roughly $5 billion of investment over five years under its EnergyForward carbon-free strategy; Otter Tail Power announced the 295 MW Abercrombie solar farm; Montana-Dakota Utilities took its 150 MW position in Badger Wind; and Minnkota locked up all 370 MW of Flickertail Wind. In a state with no mandate, the buyers are showing up anyway.
Latest North Dakota Clean Energy News
Headlines update throughout the day from our monitored industry and local sources. See the full daily briefing.
Project Opposition in North Dakota
Frequently Asked Questions
How much of North Dakota's electricity comes from renewables?
About four-tenths. Wind, solar and storage produced 35.6 percent of the state's electricity per the American Clean Power Association's 2026 fact sheet — eighth among states — and total low-carbon generation including hydropower was about 41 percent over the 12 months through March 2026, per EIA data. Nearly all of it is wind; coal still supplies more than half of in-state generation.
How much wind capacity does North Dakota have?
Roughly 5,000 MW. Cleanview counts 42 utility-scale wind farms totaling 4,979 MW as of July 2026, and ACP's 2026 fact sheet puts total operating wind, solar and storage capacity at 4,966 MW, ranking North Dakota 21st among states. About 450 MW of that came online in late 2025 and early 2026 with the Bowman Wind and Badger Wind projects.
Does North Dakota have a renewable portfolio standard?
No mandatory one. The state adopted a voluntary Renewable and Recycled Energy Objective in 2007 calling for 10 percent renewable or recycled electricity by 2015, with no penalty for missing it and no target after 2015. In 2025 lawmakers broadened what counts as renewable by including pre-2007 hydropower (HB 1211), and rejected a bill that would have restricted wind and solar development through eminent domain changes.
Who approves wind farms in North Dakota?
Both the state and counties. The Public Service Commission issues a certificate of site compatibility for any wind facility over one-half megawatt under the state Siting Act, applying setbacks of 1.1 times turbine height from nonparticipating property lines and 3 times turbine height from occupied homes of nonparticipating landowners. Counties also require zoning or special use permits, and some — like Stark and McLean — have adopted stricter local setbacks. A 2025 law, HB 1258, gives PSC-approved projects primacy over conflicting local rules.
What is the largest wind farm in North Dakota?
The Aurora Wind Project in Williams and Mountrail counties, a 299 MW, 71-turbine facility owned by Enel Green Power that came online in early 2021. Minnesota Power's Bison Wind Energy Center complex in Oliver and Morton counties is larger in aggregate at roughly 500 MW across 165 turbines.
Does North Dakota have utility-scale solar power?
Not yet. The state has only about 2 MW of mostly small-scale solar, last in the nation. The first utility-scale project, the 200 MW, roughly $320 million Harmony Solar farm in Cass County west of Fargo, holds a PSC certificate renewed in November 2024 and targets commercial operation around 2028. Otter Tail Power has also announced a 295 MW solar project near Abercrombie.
The Bottom Line
North Dakota's clean energy story is entering its second act. The first 5 GW of wind got built on economics and open land, with a voluntary state objective that lapsed in 2015 and no mandate to replace it. The next phase is harder: the easy counties are full, the coal counties are organized, and the PSC-versus-county power balance set by HB 1258 will be litigated project by project — starting with Longspur.
The bull case is demand. Between the CoreWeave-contracted 400 MW at Ellendale, the 280 MW campus rising at Harwood, and out-of-state utilities like Minnesota Power and Otter Tail shopping for North Dakota megawatts, load is arriving faster than transmission or generation. A state that is last in the nation in solar with about 2 MW installed is about to get its first 200 MW utility-scale project, and its wind fleet just grew by roughly 450 MW in a matter of months. Watch the May 2026 Longspur record, the HB 1579 large-load study, and Harmony Solar's construction start — those three threads will tell you whether North Dakota's next 5 GW takes five years or fifteen.