From this morning's Des Moines Register, FYI:


Iowa gets wind of additional electricity

MidAmerican Energy plans 50 more turbines

By FRANK VINLUAN
REGISTER BUSINESS WRITER
January 27, 2005

MidAmerican Energy wants to make one of the nation's largest wind energy
projects even bigger.

The utility plans to add 50 turbines to its Iowa wind farm. The total
project would have 257 turbines that could power up to 100,000 homes,
according to a request filed with the Iowa Utilities Board on Wednesday.
MidAmerican is asking to add more turbines because it has the capacity to do
it and the extra generation helps meet Gov. Tom Vilsack's renewable energy
goals, said Tom Budler, wind project manager.

"It's a good fit in our generation portfolio, and we think it's the right
thing to do," Budler said.

The new turbines will cost $63 million, Budler said. But the addition will
not affect customer power rates, which will remain the same through 2010
under MidAmerican's rate agreement with the utilities board.
MidAmerican's wind project is at two sites. The northwest Iowa site opened
Dec. 31. The north-central Iowa site is scheduled to be completed by the end
of September.

The proposed new generation would add 15 turbines to the northwest Iowa site
and 35 to the north-central Iowa site, for 50 megawatts. That additional
generation would be completed by the end of the year, Budler said.
Emmet O'Hanlon , energy associate for the Iowa Public Interest Research
Group, called the proposed turbines "good news." But he noted that the
additional generation is small compared with the capacity of the new
coal-fired power plant MidAmerican is building in Council Bluffs.

"Fifty megawatts is great, but it's a drop in the bucket," he said.
The Des Moines-based nonprofit group supports the adoption of a 20 percent
renewable energy standard, which O'Hanlon said would spur utilities to
pursue renewable energy instead of new coal, natural gas or nuclear
generation.

Iowa law requires utilities to get 2 percent of their electricity from
renewable sources. Vilsack has a goal of 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy
in Iowa by 2010. When MidAmerican's wind project is complete, the utility
estimates that slightly more than 9 percent of its generation will come from
renewable sources.

If the utilities board approves the proposal, the entire MidAmerican project
will have the capacity to generate 360.5 megawatts, which would make it the
largest wind project in the United States.

The American Wind Energy Association, however, considers MidAmerican's
project two separate wind farms because of the different sites, spokeswoman
Kathy Belyeu said.

MidAmerican began construction on the turbines in October, shortly after
President Bush signed legislation renewing a tax credit for renewable energy
generation.

Iowa ranks 10th among states in wind energy potential, according to the wind
association. But by the end of last year, Iowa ranked as high as third among
states in wind energy production. Bringing the northwest Iowa site into
operation on Dec. 31 was enough to push Iowa just ahead of Minnesota, Belyeu
said.

Four-hundred megawatts of new wind energy generation was brought online in
2004, according to the wind association. The "production tax credit," which
supports MidAmerican's wind project and others across the nation, will
expire at the end of the year.

Wind projects have been slowed because of industry uncertainty about the
credit from year to year, Belyeu said. Turbine construction will slow again
if the tax credit is not renewed for two years or more.

"It's a matter of making sure the momentum of a big year isn't lost," Belyeu
said.
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___________________________________________________
Lyle Krewson
6403 Aurora Avenue #3
Des Moines, IA 50322-2862

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515/276-8947 - Ofc/Res
515/238-7113 - Cel
___________________________________________________

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