JAN 12

Other countries have unveiled plans recently for large-scale renewable energy projects, but the U.S. has some impressive projects of its own. Trade Wind Energy is planning a very ambitious wind farm in Iowa. One that will cost $1.5 billion and, when completed, will generate 500 MW of energy.

The wind farm will consist of 335 turbines, each able to power 500 to 1,000 homes, that means that if all goes as plannned, this project could power a total of 167,500 to 335,000 homes. The turbines will be placed 1,000 feet apart on land that will be leased from area property owners, many of which are farmers. Trade Wind Energy says that some leases have already been signed and neighboring farmers are supportive of the project.

If enough property can be leased and other red tape is cleared, construction on the wind farm will begin in three to five years. It's great to see large-scale projects like these starting to take hold. As smaller-scale ones prove successful, I hope that more states will sign on for ambitious projects like this one. The price tag is expensive, but it's the type of investment that needs to happen if we want renewable energy powering our lives.

via CleanTechnica

Comments (8)

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written by solargroupies, January 13, 2009

Great news. Is it possible to modify the review and permitting process for alternative energy projects? How many trillion metric tons of carbon will be spewed into the atmosphere generating electricity from fossil fuels before the turbines are spinning? What a shame.

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Iowa leads again
written by Rebecca, January 14, 2009

Thank-you for featuring the wind energy efforts here in Iowa. Iowa is third in its wind production efforts behind California and Texas. This is due to many factors including efforts by the Iowa Energy Center run out of Iowa State University and by our lawmakers to make Iowa a leading state in clean energy production. In June 2005, a law was passed to give tax credits to individuals and large corporations that generate electricity from wind power. Research and incentives really do make the difference...write your legislator!
http://www.greenat50.com

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Wind power
written by Bill, January 14, 2009

I am as excited as the next guy about solar and wind power but I have read almost nothing about the effects of removing energy from the system that controls weather in the world. Like any system changes in energy flow changes the entire system. Surface winds effect evaporation, wind patterns and god knows how many other things. When we start removing energy from this system what will the efffects be. For that matter Solar may have the same effects although we have a lot of solar heat gain caused by our construction to make up for. I hope someone is out there thinking about this. 20 years from now we may know what we did next year.

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Shared green patents - including electri
written by Nir, January 14, 2009

Look at other green free patents at
http://www.openpatents.net

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written by Karkus, January 14, 2009

Sure, wind turbines must have some small effect on the weather, but so does pretty much everything else we've been doing, including clearcutting forests, forming clouds via airplane contrails, paving over large areas (city heat island), and emitting lots of greenhouse gases emissions (which these wind turbines help minimize).
I know scientist have modeled the effect wind turbines have one each other if you put up really big windfarms, and so I'm pretty sure they have also though about effects on weather, etc. Humans demand energy, and so unless we want to go back to the stone age, we have to figure out which forms of energy production are the least damaging, and how to use it more efficiently.

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sohbet
written by bizimlesohbet, January 15, 2009

nice site thenk you

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The more wind the better
written by Royce Fullerton, January 18, 2009

I hope that everything will go smoothly with this project. I love to see investment in wind and especially in my home state of Iowa. If I owned a big chunk of land in Iowa I would definitely sign up and lease to this project if I was in a place with adequate wind.

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written by wedding dresses, October 13, 2009

In an economy where finance is hard to come buy, and the governments of the world are already propping up their economies with massive debt, will massive projects which carry potentially massive liabilities such as nuclear power begin to look even less attractive, whilst smaller unit-cost renewables, with a demonstrable payback within their own life time

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