South Dakota

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To get to zero by 2050, South Dakota must cut emissions by 3.7% a year

Emissions in South Dakota

Million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2)  equivalent (MTCO2e ) emissions

Note: Grey area indicates missing data due to processing delays.
Source: WRI, Mar 2021

This is how we're going to do it

South Dakota's climate pollution, by source
🏭 Other: 72%🔌 Power: 7%🚗 Transport: 16%🏠 Buildings: 5%

Source: WRI, Mar 2021

    Decarbonize Our Buildings

    🏭 Other: 72%🔌 Power: 7%🚗 Transport: 16%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    5% of South Dakota's climate pollution comes from buildings.

    We burn fossil fuels to heat our air, water, and food.

    To cut this pollution...

    Let's electrify our heat!

    We'll replace...

    • Boilers and furnaces with heat pumps 
    • Gas stoves with electric induction stoves 

    ...in all of South Dakota's 661,000 buildings.

    In fact, 37% of appliances in buildings in South Dakota are already fossil fuel free!

    That means we only need to electrify the remaining 418,000 dirty buildings in South Dakota. That's around 15,000 per year.

    Percent of Buildings electrifiedA chart showing the share of Buildings that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.36.76% have been electrified, and the remaining 63.24% are fossil fuel based.Buildings ElectrifiedNot yetSource: Microsoft, Mar 2021; NREL, Dec 2021

    Electrifying all buildings cuts 5% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 72%🔌 Power: 7%🚗 Transport: 16%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    Decarbonize Our Transport

    🏭 Other: 72%🔌 Power: 7%🚗 Transport: 16%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    16% of South Dakota's pollution comes from cars, trucks, trains, and planes.

    But mostly from cars.

    To cut this pollution,

    your next car must be electric.

    Or consider going car-free with public transit, bikes/e-bikes, car share, or other alternatives!

    There are 325,000 vehicles in South Dakota and 410 are already electric (0.1% of the total).

    We need to electrify (or replace) the remaining 325,000 gas-powered vehicles. That's around 12,000 a year.

    Percent of Vehicles electrifiedA chart showing the share of Vehicles that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.0.1% have been electrified, and the remaining 99.9% are fossil fuel based.Vehicles ElectrifiedNot yetSource: DOT, Feb 2021

    Electrifying all transportation cuts 16% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 72%🔌 Power: 7%🚗 Transport: 16%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    Decarbonize Our Power

    🏭 Other: 72%🔌 Power: 7%🚗 Transport: 16%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    7% of South Dakota's pollution comes from burning coal, gas, and oil to make power.

    Dirty power plant

    To cut this pollution...

    Put solar panels on your roof!

    Then, we'll replace all fossil fuel power plants with solar and wind farms.

    We need to replace dirty power plants with clean ones (mostly wind and solar)

    ...and find good jobs for those workers.

    Current Fossil Fuel Power Plants in South Dakota

    1 coal plant

    Name: Big Stone County: Grant Megawatt Capacity: 451 Utility: Otter Tail Power Co

    Big Stone
    Grant County
    451 MW

    9 gas plants

    Name: Angus Anson County: Minnehaha Megawatt Capacity: 406 Utility: Northern States Power Co - Minnesota

    Angus Anson
    Minnehaha County
    406 MW

    Name: Deer Creek Station County: Brookings Megawatt Capacity: 324 Utility: Basin Electric Power Coop

    Deer Creek Station
    Brookings County
    324 MW

    Name: Groton Generating Station County: Brown Megawatt Capacity: 189 Utility: Basin Electric Power Coop

    Groton Generating Station
    Brown County
    189 MW

    Name: Ben French County: Pennington Megawatt Capacity: 135 Utility: Black Hills Power, Inc. d/b/a

    Ben French
    Pennington County
    135 MW

    Name: Aberdeen Generating Station County: Brown Megawatt Capacity: 111 Utility: NorthWestern Energy - (SD)

    Aberdeen Generating Station
    Brown County
    111 MW

    Name: Huron County: Beadle Megawatt Capacity: 58 Utility: NorthWestern Energy - (SD)

    Huron
    Beadle County
    58 MW

    Name: Lange County: Pennington Megawatt Capacity: 40 Utility: Black Hills Power, Inc. d/b/a

    Lange
    Pennington County
    40 MW

    Name: Yankton County: Yankton Megawatt Capacity: 13 Utility: NorthWestern Energy - (SD)

    Yankton
    Yankton County
    13 MW

    Name: POET Biorefining - Hudson County: Lincoln Megawatt Capacity: 4 Utility: POET Biorefining - Hudson

    POET Biorefining - Hudson
    Lincoln County
    4 MW

    9 oil plants

    Name: Spirit Mound County: Clay Megawatt Capacity: 135 Utility: Basin Electric Power Coop

    Spirit Mound
    Clay County
    135 MW

    Name: Watertown Power Plant County: Codington Megawatt Capacity: 68 Utility: Missouri Basin Muni Power Agny

    Watertown Power Plant
    Codington County
    68 MW

    Name: Lake Preston County: Kingsbury Megawatt Capacity: 48 Utility: Otter Tail Power Co

    Lake Preston
    Kingsbury County
    48 MW

    Name: Ft. Pierre County: Stanley Megawatt Capacity: 6 Utility: City of Fort Pierre - (SD)

    Ft. Pierre
    Stanley County
    6 MW

    Name: Valley Queen Cheese County: Grant Megawatt Capacity: 5 Utility: Valley Queen Cheese Factory, Inc.

    Valley Queen Cheese
    Grant County
    5 MW

    Name: Mobile Unit County: Beadle Megawatt Capacity: 4 Utility: NorthWestern Energy - (SD)

    Mobile Unit
    Beadle County
    4 MW

    Name: Clark (SD) County: Clark Megawatt Capacity: 3 Utility: NorthWestern Energy - (SD)

    Clark (SD)
    Clark County
    3 MW

    Name: Faulkton County: Faulk Megawatt Capacity: 3 Utility: NorthWestern Energy - (SD)

    Faulkton
    Faulk County
    3 MW

    Name: State Auto Insurance County: Grant Megawatt Capacity: 2 Utility: State Auto Insurance, Inc.

    State Auto Insurance
    Grant County
    2 MW

    Find the dirty plants near you

    Source: EPA, Jan 2021

    But wait!

    It's not enough to replace our power plants with wind and solar farms.

    To power our electric cars and buildings, we need two times the electricity we have today.

    In all, we'll need to build 1,000 megawatt (MW)  of wind power and 813 MW of solar power.

    Since the average wind turbine provides 2.75 MW of peak capacity, South Dakota would need to install about 364 turbines.

    Since South Dakota already has 1,000 MW of wind and 0 MW of solar, that's -64 MW of wind power we need to build and 813 MW of solar power. That's around 0 MW of wind power and 30 MW of solar power a year.

    Percent of needed Wind & Solar builtA chart showing the share of Solar and Wind capacity that has already been installed and rest to be installed. We are 50% of the way to what we need to be carbon neutral by 2050.MWs of Wind & Solar Built

    Source: EIA, Apr 2022

    Decarbonizing all dirty power cuts 7% of the pollution.

    And gives us zero-emissions power we need to eliminate pollution from buildings and cars!

    🏭 Other: 72%🔌 Power: 7%🚗 Transport: 16%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    Other Emissions

    🏭 Other: 72%🔌 Power: 7%🚗 Transport: 16%🏠 Buildings: 5%

    The last 72% of South Dakota's climate pollution comes from other sources...

    This includes farming, landfills, industry, and leaks from gas pipelines.

    There's no one solution to solve these problems, but there are lots of great ideas:

    • No-till farming to keep CO2 in the soil
    • Capturing methane leaks from landfills
    • Capturing CO2 to make emissions-free concrete
    • Burning green hydrogen to make emissions-free steel
    • Plugging methane leaks from gas pipelines

    That doesn't mean there's no solution, it just means that clean electrification  doesn't help with these problems, and you could fill a whole book with covering all of them. We need to encourage our politicians to invest in researching new solutions and implementing existing solutions to these problems!

Ready to do your part?

Learn how to electrify your own machines and pass local policy to electrify the rest

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