MidAmerican Energy eyes 2016 for two wind farms in Iowa

Source: By Steve Jordon, Omaha World-Herald staff writer • Posted: Monday, August 31, 2015

MidAmerican Energy Co. of Des Moines said Thursday that its next wind farms, estimated last spring as a $900 million investment, will be installed in northwest Iowa’s Ida and O’Brien Counties by the end of 2016.

The Ida Grove wind farm will have 134 wind-powered generators and the O’Brien wind farm will have 104 for a combined capacity of 552 megawatts. As a comparison, Omaha Public Power District’s north Omaha power plant has a capacity of 638 megawatts.

MidAmerican, a division of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. of Omaha, already is building a wind farm in O’Brien County that will be the company’s largest when it is completed this year.

Mike Gehringer, the company’s vice president for renewable energy, said that by the end of 2015, more of MidAmerican’s electricity will come from wind than from any other single source. MidAmerican will have more than 2,000 wind turbines in 23 Iowa counties.