MidAmerican Energy’s breathtaking 2 gigawatts (GW) Wind XI project continues to roll out across Iowa with several new announcements confirming another 341 megawatts (MW) worth of capacity across the Arbor Hill and Ivester wind farms.
The final referendum results were stunningly close, with local organizers coming within three votes of advancing an effort for a municipal electric utility in the small town of Decorah, Iowa.
MidAmerican Energy announced a new large-scale wind energy project towards the end of May, dubbed “Wind XII,” which consists of 591 megawatts (MW) worth of new wind capacity in Iowa, and which would propel the company to be the first investor-owned electric utility in the US to generate renewable energy equal to 100% of its customers usage each year.
Fed up with their electricity provider Alliant Energy, one of Iowa’s largest monopoly utilities, Decorah area residents decided to explore their options for pursuing cleaner, local energy and how the city could create a municipal electric utility for its 8,000 residents and business community. Advocates formed Decorah Power, a grassroots group of residents and community organizers making a clear case for municipal control, and the group has been garnering support for putting the public back in their public utility.
Iowa energy provider MidAmerican Energy has announced this week plans to build two new wind farms with a combined capacity of 550 megawatts (MW) in Adair County which will be a part of the company’s previously-announced 2 gigawatt (GW) Wind XI project.
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy announced on Tuesday that it had been selected to supply 225 megawatts (MW) worth of wind turbines for a new but undisclosed project being built in Kansas, United States.
Frustrated with incumbent utility Alliant Energy for high costs and resistance to local renewable energy, the city council in Decorah, IA, has put a municipal utility takeover on the ballot on May 1, 2018.
Wind energy is one of the fastest growing forms of electricity generation in the United States, with the largest share renewable electricity generating capacity in the country, and according to new information from the American Wind Energy Association, wind energy now supplies more than 30% of the electricity in four states — Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, and South Dakota.
Danish wind energy company Vestas announced or confirmed four separate North American wind turbine orders over the weekend to close out the first quarter, totaling 598 megawatts (MW).
Wind power might seem like a fringe source of electricity to some, and critics certainly have gone after it aggressively at times, but it’s now a large source of electricity in the United States and many other countries. One of the main points of misinformation about wind power is the idea that it couldn’t ever produce enough electricity to be an important source for everyone. This notion is totally untrue — there are plenty of wind resources that can be developed in order to eventually make wind power a primary source of electricity.
