Broken Bow dedicated its second wind farm Monday, where forty three wind turbines now grace the skyline northeast of the Custer County community.

“For the year they were in construction there was an average of 300 construction workers here from outside the area. If you think about it in terms of rural Nebraska that’s an entire community,” said Custer Economic Development Corporation Executive Melissa Garcia.

Governor Dave Heineman helped dedicate the $110 million wind project called Broken Bow II.

“When you look at rural Nebraska and where it’s headed in terms of wind energy development you’re beginning to see it significantly move forward and that’s good for our state,” he said.

The 75 megawatt wind farm facility will help power up 30,000 homes.

“Why not here? Look at this right now, the wind, it has a fantastic wind resource. But on top there is a business environment here with the landowners that made it very easy for us to develop a wind farm. It wouldn’t surprise me if we ended up with another wind project in Nebraska,” said Sempra U.S. Gas & Power Renewables and Corporate Development Vice-President.

Nebraska Public Power District officials say this project puts them that much closer to a commitment they made more than ten years ago.

“Custer County will have the second largest concentration in the state. We’re about 22 megawatts away from our goal of having 10 percent more energy come from renewables. We will be evaluating what happens here in the next several months. There are a lot of federal environmental regulations that will be up for comments and we will have to see what the impacts of those regulations are before we make any further decisions, said NPPD CEO Pat Pope.

Sempra donated $10,000 to Custer County’s Economic Development Corporation’s CAPABLE Program.

The program exposes the youth to jobs that are available right in their local community as part of an effort to bring students back after college.