World Class Wind

One of Iowa’s claims to fame is as home to one of the world’s largest wind farms. Located along the Buffalo Ridge, a large landform running from the Dakotas down through Iowa, the farm generates a lot of buzz and a lot of electricity.

Two hundred and fifty-nine wind turbines scattered across the Storm Lake and Alta areas can generate a maximum of 194 MW when the wind is blowing at a steady 30 miles per hour. That electricity powers about 72,000 homes each year. Each individual turbine can generate a maximum of 750 kW. If the electricity generated by the wind farm were instead generated by coal plants, those plants would burn about 300,000 tons of coal and put about 1 billion pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. This wind farm means we use less of our fossil fuel supply and help save significant amounts of CO2 from going into the atmosphere.

The wind farm is also a big tourism draw, with visitors from as far away as India and Japan coming to see a renewable resource in action.

More Energy Blowing into Iowa . . .

Top of Iowa Wind Farm
http://www.midwest-renewable.com/top-of-iowa-windfarm-ii.html

Iowa 3rd Leading Wind Energy Producer
http://www.electricityforum.com/news/mar03/iowawindfarm.html

Iowa Wind Energy Projects Database
http://www.awea.org/projects/iowa.html