New Iowa wind power project now operating

A new wind energy project in western Iowa has gone into operation with the ability to produce enough electricity to power the homes of about 40,000 customers.

MidAmerican Energy’s Victory wind project consists of 66 wind turbines in Carroll and Crawford counties, near the towns of Westside and Arcadia.

Construction on the 99-megawatt project began last spring. Its completion boosts MidAmerican’s wind energy generating capacity in Iowa to 459.5 megawatts.

The Des Moines-based company began building wind energy towers in 2004. It completed a 310.5-megawatt and 50-megawatt project last year.

Both were in response to a challenge by Gov. Tom Vilsack to work toward achieving 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy in Iowa by 2010.

MidAmerican plans to complete a 123-megawatt project near Pomeroy next year to help achieve that goal.

”MidAmerican is committed to helping Iowa become a leader in the development of renewable energy,” said Todd Raba, president of MidAmerican. ”What we’re doing is good for Iowa, good for the environment and good for our customers.

Raba said MidAmerican has not raised electric rates since 1995 and does not plan any increases through at least 2010.

”What’s more gratifying is that we haven’t raise our customers’ electric rates to build wind generation,” he said.

MidAmerican is Iowa’s largest energy company and provides electric service to 706,000 customers and natural gas service to 687,000 customers in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, South Dakota and Nebraska.