WESSINGTON SPRINGS, S.D. – Fourth-generation South Dakotan Aaron Assmus wanted to learn how to do electrical work so he could help out on his family farm in Aurora County. Now he helps generate electricity in his home state as the leader of a NextEra Energy Resources wind energy center.
Raised in Stickney, South Dakota, Assmus attended nearby Mitchell Technical Institute (now Mitchell Technical College) and earned degrees in electrical construction and maintenance and power line construction and maintenance.
“I wanted to apply myself if we needed to fix things on the farm, wire our own grain bins and livestock sheds, do work like that so we wouldn’t have to hire an electrical contractor,” recalls Assmus, whose family has been raising cattle and crops since his great-grandfather came to Aurora County.
At Mitchell Technical Institute, Assmus became familiar with NextEra Energy Resources while working for an electrical contractor who was wiring turbines at the company’s Wessington Springs Wind Energy Center in Jerauld County.
Assmus started working with NextEra Energy Resources in 2010 as a wind technician at a site in Highmore, South Dakota. In 2011, he began working at Wessington Springs, beginning as a wind technician and eventually becoming the leader of the site.
“NextEra Energy Resources really invests in the community. They’ve invested in me,” says Assmus.
He still helps out with the family farm, often tending to the fields and livestock after his day at the wind energy center concludes. His greatest passion is working with his Labrador retrievers in the fields of South Dakota, where he runs a pheasant hunting guide service in the fall on his family farm that attracts many out-of-state tourists.
Wind is an abundant resource in South Dakota, and Assmus says he’s proud to play a role in using homegrown energy to power his state and boost its economy.
“I love South Dakota,” he says. “There’s something to do anywhere you want to go. It really is like the slogan on the license plates – ‘Great Faces, Great Places.’ There isn’t a place you drive by that they don’t give you the wave – friendly people.”
In addition to the Wessington Springs site, NextEra Energy Resources has three other wind energy centers in South Dakota with turbines in Coddington, Grant, Day and Hyde counties.
NextEra Energy Resources has invested more than $800 million in South Dakota, supporting nearly $5 million in annual payroll in the state, more than $2 million in annual payments to landowners and more than $2 million a year in property taxes and other local taxes to help pay for schools, roads, first responders and other services.
