MINOT, N. D.-wind power’s Reliance on freelance construction labor is costing the North Dakota economy more than $ 62 million, according to a report released Wednesday by the advocacy group Local Jobs North.

The October 16 report found increasing the 10% to 30% rental rate for local builders to 50% to 60% would generate $ 62 million more economic impact, not including workers ‘ retirement benefits, which would increase the impact by $ 82 million.

“Catch the wind 3.0: the Impact of local versus non-local hiring practices on wind farms in North Dakota” was authored by Lucas Franco, research Director at LIUNA Minnesota

Developers, wind energy advocates and communities can’t just assume that local jobs will happen without paying attention, said Kevin Pranis, marketing Manager for LIUNA Great lakes.

“In order for people to focus on solutions, we first had to describe the problem and see it in numbers,” Pranis told local jobs North of the report.

Last June, unions asked the North Dakota public service Commission to require Ruso Wind Partners, a subsidiary of Southern Power, as part of its authorization to file a report on how many of its workers are from a local area that is considered about a 150-mile Radius. The PUK is likely to act on the permission of Navector Until the end of the year, Commissioner Julia Fedorchak said.

According to Fedorchak, one of the criteria that the PSC is considering in allowing wind farms is one of the criteria that the PsC is considering.

“We always talk about it and encourage them to hire locally,” she said.

However, North Dakota has a low unemployment rate, which is a factor the PSC also considers when determining the feasibility of local hiring, she said.

The request of the trade unions requires only the reporting requirements, but the trade unions believe that the transparency may encourage more local hiring.

The jobs report notes the Minnesota utility Commission currently requires wind energy project owners to file quarterly reports on the use of local and non-local labor and considers local work impacts when permitting wind energy facilities. In the meantime, utilities, wind power developers and contractors are partnering with local construction bidding organizations to recruit, train and deploy Minnesota workers to create wind projects.

Between 2017 and 2018, construction organizations estimated that local employment accounted for less than 20% of construction jobs on major Minnesota wind power projects. In 2019, the same organizations say, local residents account for more than 50% of the wind power construction workforce, and they expect local worker participation to be even higher in 2020.

The jobs report said the experience of two projects in Minnesota in hiring mostly local construction forces indicates finding employees is not a problem. The number of North dakotans in low-wage, often retail, jobs is also cited as a potential labor reserve if construction training is available. Representatives of building trade unions indicated that they are ready to recruit and train residents of North Dakota for the construction of wind energy.

“We have made progress in Minnesota, and we believe there is scope to make the same progress in North Dakota if developers sit down at the negotiating table and politicians start to look at it seriously,” Pranis said. “It’s really just trying to get that conversation started in North Dakota.”

The jobs report notes that at least nine major wind farm projects are either seeking permits or are in pre-construction across North Dakota. If 50% to 70% of the work on all nine projects was done by local workers, the total projected economic impact of employment on wind farm construction, including the cost of deferred fringe benefits, would fall between $170 million and $210 million. This would be reduced to $ 87 million and $ 127 million if only 10% to 30% of the workforce is local.

The Wind Aurora project, being developed by Enel Green Power Northwest of Tioga, is expected to create about 300 jobs at the peak of construction.

Wind power developers relied on non-local builders, an estimated 86% of construction workers on recent North Dakota projects, the jobs report said. Pranis explained that many contractors have mobile crews that move from project to project across state lines, accounting for a large number of workers who were out of state.

A 150-to 200-megawatt wind farm, consisting of 35 to 70 turbines, requires 135 to 200 builders to build, according to a single renewable energy jobs model.

According to research by Local Jobs North, a local wind energy construction worker can be expected to spend about three times as many jobs as a non-local worker in the short term. Local is defined loosely and is generally considered within the distance of the construction site.