MidAmerican Energy has commissioned two wind farms in Iowa that total 551MW. The 301MW Ida Grove and 250MW O’Brien developments make up the utility’s Wind X project. Mortenson was the general contractor in charge of construction.
The Ida Grove project includes 120 GE 2.3MW and 14 GE 1.79MW turbines, while O’Brien features 91 Siemens SWT 2.415MW and 13 Siemens SWT 2.346MW machines. The two wind farms will provide more than $115m in annual landowner payments and more than $160m in property tax revenues over the next 30 years.
The projects were built at no net cost to customers, said MidAmerican. “Wind is a key element of our balanced approach to energy generation because it’s a renewable and clean source of energy,” said MidAmerican vice president resource development Michael Fehr.
MidAmerican’s average retail price for electricity is 6.78 cents/kWh, about 37% lower than the national average retail price of 10.68 cents/kWh, according to the Edison Electric Institute.
Source: renews.biz
