Four wind-development companies have converged on the Day, Marshall and Roberts County areas in the recent past. But landowners say they like National Wind, a Minneapolis company that wants to build the largest community-based wind-energy operation in the U.S. in the area.

Dennis Fagerland of rural Langford say farmers like National Wind because it allows local people to invest and reap some of the profits.  National Wind has launched a company called Dakota Wind to create the South Dakota operation. On paper, it includes 500 turbine windmills at six to eight sites from Langford into Roberts County and south to Roslyn in Day County.

So far, the project has about 15 initial investors.