MidAmerican Energy Company, already a national leader in terms of installed wind energy capacity among rate-regulated utilities, received approval Tuesday from the Iowa Utilities Board to build up to 545 megawatts of additional wind-powered electric generation in Iowa. MidAmerican currently owns and operates 360.5 megawatts of wind energy facilities in northwest and north central Iowa that have the capability to produce enough electricity to power 100,000 homes. The new projects, utilizing improved wind turbine technology, would have the capability of generating enough electricity for up to 200,000 more customers.
The ultimate project size, cost and locations have not been finalized.
The first phase of the expansion is scheduled to be completed in 2006. The 99-megawatt project, being constructed by Invenergy Wind Development Iowa LLC, will use 66 GE Energy 1.5-megawatt wind turbines.
If the full 545 megawatts of wind generation are added by the end of 2007, MidAmerican would own or have under contract, in Iowa, more than 1,000 megawatts of wind, biomass and hydroelectric energy. Based on American Wind Energy Association information, Iowa currently has more than 830 megawatts of installed wind energy capacity, making it third in the country, behind California and Texas, in the production of wind energy.
MidAmerican also announced that it has reached agreement with the Iowa Farmers Union to facilitate the opportunity for small community-based wind projects to sell the output of their wind projects to MidAmerican. MidAmerican will purchase up to 40 megawatts of capacity from community wind projects that are connected to MidAmerican’s electric distribution system. Each project can consist of up to 2.5 megawatts, and up to 20 megawatts can be connected at any one delivery point on MidAmerican’s electric distribution system.
MidAmerican Energy Company, Iowa’s largest energy company, provides electric service to 706,000 customers and natural gas service to 687,000 customers in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and South Dakota.
Invenergy Wind Development Iowa LLC is a subsidiary of Invenergy Wind LLC, a developer, owner and operator of utility-scale wind generation facilities.
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