Company will receive 10-year tax credit starting at 1.8 cents per kilowatt
MidAmerican Energy recently chose two locations in northwest Iowa for its $323 million windmill project. Southwest of Storm Lake, 107 windmills will straddle U.S. Highway 20 and near Blairsburg, 100 others will be visible from Interstate 35. The 310MW this project will generate will bring Iowa to about 780MW of wind power.
The Iowa utility has already begun work on the project and hopes to have the windmills near Storm Lake in operation by the end of the year. The other half should be online by the end of 2005. The project was made possible by a vote Thursday in Congress to reauthorize a tax credit for wind power, which had expired in December 2003 and caused wind projects across the country to be put on hold.