SIRIUS MINERALS PLC - ADRs (bundles of 500 shares) (SRUXY)

[Thunderbolt]

Hi Dave, Looks like North Dakota is in the news again re renewable energy. This is very good for Sirius Exploration (SRUXY) and Dakota Salts.

http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/536359.html

Shifting a quarter of the nation's electrical generation to renewable sources would create 274,000 jobs nationwide, including 4,900 jobs in North Dakota, according to a study conducted for an alliance of renewable energy companies.

The RES Alliance for Jobs is promoting a federal renewable energy standard requiring electrical utilities to get 25 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2025.

Basin Electric Cooperative in Bismarck, which provides electricity to a consortium of rural co-ops, reported it was already at 22 percent from hydropower and wind at the end of 2009. That exceeds the goal of Basin Electric members, who voted in 2005 to aim for 10 percent of power from renewable sources by 2010.

Basin Electric brought its PrairieWinds 1 and Minot Wind 2 projects on line in December. It expects to maintain an employment of eight to 10 people in the 120-megawatt operations.

Xcel Energy, which serves Minot, is the nation's top wind power provider among investor-owned utilities, according to the American Wind Energy Association. At the end of 2009, Xcel Energy had 3,176 megawatts of wind power capacity in its eight-state service territory, including 1,265 megawatts in Minnesota and the Dakotas.

The company will get 10 percent of its capacity from renewable sources once two new wind projects come on line in the next two years. By 2025, Xcel Energy's goal is to have 30 percent of its power coming from renewable sources, of which 25 percent would be wind, said spokeswoman Bonnie Lund, Fargo.

One of Xcel's proposed wind projects is the 150-megawatt Merricourt wind farm in southeastern North Dakota. According to national averages provided by the American Wind Energy Association, a 150-megawatt wind energy project would be expected to create about 150 construction jobs, 10 long-term operation and maintenance jobs and 300 manufacturing jobs.

The "Job Impacts of a National Renewable Electricity Standard" study released Thursday was conducted by an independent firm for the RES Alliance for Jobs. It linked most of the 4,900 new jobs in North Dakota to wind energy. Fewer than 250 new jobs would be created in the hydropower industry. New jobs include direct, indirect and induced, which are created from wages spent.

A national breakdown of direct jobs shows 52 percent would be in manufacturing, 23 percent in construction, 11 percent in engineering and technical services and 14 percent in operation, maintenance, administration and management.

The North Dakota Public Service Commission reports wind projects are producing 1,186.72 megawatts of energy in the state. Companies have either received permits or have applied for permits for another 7,010.72 megawatts in 14 proposed projects. They include Merricourt as well as Sequoia Energy's 150-megawatt Border Winds project in Rolette and Towner counties and Hartland Wind Farm's 2,000 megawatts in Ward, Burke and Mountrail counties.

In addition, the PSC has received numerous interconnectivity requests to transport wind-generated power through the Midwest grid.

"Future development does hinge on getting transmission lines," said Jerry Lein, public utilities analyst with the PSC.

Daryl Hill, spokesman for Basin Electric in Bismarck, said transmission is particularly important for North Dakota.

"Certainly you have to have the transmission capabilities to move this power because North Dakota is a power-exporting state," he said.

Basin Electric has the transmission capacity to move ahead with plans to add more wind power to its energy grid, Hill said. The cooperative plans to start construction later this year on a wind farm in South Dakota and will purchase energy from another wind project there.