The wind farm is being built as part of its Wind XI project and will include 170 new turbines with a combined electricity generating capacity of 340MW.
The new wind farm is scheduled for completion in next December and the company expects to pay $137m in county property taxes and $114m in landowner lease payments during the 40-year lifespan of the project.
MidAmerican Energy president and CEO Bill Fehrman said: “We are excited to continue development of our Wind XI project and come closer to achieving our 100% Renewable Vision.
“The benefits of Wind XI are very clear: clean energy produced right here in Iowa, for Iowa customers, using one of Iowa’s abundant renewable resources.”
MidAmerican stated that it is working with developers, county officials and land owners at the potential sites of wind farms in other counties in Iowa to develop the Wind XI project. Construction on these wind farms is expected to start in 2018 and 2019. The sites will be announced at a later date, the company said.
Wind XI project, which is expected to see an investment of $3.6bn, will consist of up to 1000 turbines and a total capacity of 2GW in electricity generation. And, this project is expected to be completed in December 2019.
The company claims that the Wind XI project can produce $1.2bn in economic benefits for the state’s communities in the form of rents to landowners, property tax payments during a 40 year period.
Image: The present 340MW wind farm is expected to come online in next December. Photo: Courtesy of Ali Farid/FreeImages.com.
