Sanborn, Iowa — O’Brien County is the home to the largest wind farm in the state of Iowa. MidAmerican Energy Company, the owner of the Highland Wind Farm near Primghar says construction is now underway on a second MidAmerican Energy wind farm in O’Brien County.
According to Ashton Newman, Media Relations Representative with MidAmerican, construction of their O’Brien Wind Farm started early this month. She says construction workers are installing access roads to the turbine sites and are installing the turbine foundations.
She tells us there are four foundations completed so far, and says turbines are scheduled to be delivered towards the end of July. Newman says we should be able to see the first turbines in the air around the first of August if all goes well. She says the new wind farm will have 104 turbines.
She says construction is on track and the project is scheduled to be complete and generating power by the end of the year.
The new O’Brien Wind Farm will be about half the size of the Highland Wind Farm, and will be located near Sanborn. The 250-megawatt generation capacity of the O’Brien wind farm is equivalent to the annual electricity usage of 75,000 average Iowa households. According to US Census figures, there are around 6,000 households in O’Brien County.
