| Wind
Powers Iowa’s Economic Growth
 A
new crop is beginning to dot the Iowa landscape that will
make the state less reliant on fossil fuels. The crop is
giant wind turbines. PPM Energy, Scottish Power’s
U.S. subsidiary, has announced plans to build a $50 million,
44-megawatt wind farm in northwest Iowa.
The
new facility, called “Flying Cloud,” will be
located near Spirit Lake, Iowa, and supply power to Interstate
Power & Light, a subsidiary of Alliant Energy. “We’re
bringing clean wind power to our customers to meet Iowa’s
growing demand for renewable energy,” says Lee Hanson,
an Alliant Energy executive overseeing the project. The
wind farm will feature 29 one-point-five-megawatt wind turbines
manufactured by General Electric. The wind turbines are
expected to begin churning out electricity this fall. One
megawatt equals one million watts, which means one turbine
can supply enough energy to power about 1,500 homes.
The
news follows a recent MidAmerican Energy announcement that
it will build the world’s largest wind farm in Iowa.
While the site still has not been made public, that $323
million, 310-megawatt wind project would consist of up to
200 turbines and be completed by 2006.
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