Northwest Iowa — With the focus on the environment this weekend, many people are thinking about what is being done in the name of good stewardship of the earth.
Northwest Iowa is a leader in a number of ways when it comes to renewable energy. The four-county area boasts four wind farms, owned by two companies, and three ethanol plants.
When it comes to wind energy, O’Brien County is the Iowa leader, with two wind farms called the Highland and O’Brien wind farms, both owned by MidAmerican Energy. MidAmerican Public Relations Representative Adam Jacobi says that O’Brien County has the most turbines and generation capacity among MidAmerican Energy sites.
Jacobi says MidAmerican generates enough electricity in the two wind projects in O’Brien County to power approximately 225,000 Iowa homes. Their peak capacity is 752 megawatts. He says the power generated in O’Brien county is used by their customers in this area and other parts of their service territory, all in Iowa. He says their vision is to provide 100% renewable energy to their customers.
He says they have 30 employees in O’Brien County. Statewide, Jacobi says their wind operations support 320 jobs with a payroll of approximately $22 million. He says throughout the 30-year lease period, they will pay approximately $212 million in property taxes in O’Brien County and more than $150 million to O’Brien County landowners. That’s about 7 million in taxes and 5 million in lease payments per year.
The other wind farms in the area are in Osceola County and are owned by NextEra Energy Resources. Their Senior Communication Specialist, Rebecca Rivera says that between their two wind farms, Endeavor I and Endeavor II, they generate enough electricity to power about 45,000 homes. Their combined peak capacity is 150 megawatts. She says the power generated by the Endeavor farm is purchased by Great River Energy, a not-for-profit electric generation and transmission cooperative owned by 28 electric cooperatives in Minnesota. Power from Endeavor II is purchased by Madison Gas and Electric, which provides power to the city of Madison, Wisconsin and a service area in about a 20-mile radius of that city.
Rivera says they have a combined 11 employees at their Endeavor I & II Wind Energy Centers in Osceola County and employ 682 people in the state with an annual payroll of $156 million in 2016. She says they paid about $1.1 million in property taxes on their Osceola County properties in 2016, and paid about $4.8 million to property owners in Iowa, but she says they have nine wind farms, one nuclear energy center and a generation repair and service facility in Iowa.
An ethanol plant in Ashton, owned by POET Biorefining produces about 60 million gallons of ethanol each year and processes about 60,000 bushels of corn every day or nearly 22 million bushels per year, according to POET Media Relations Specialist Matt Merritt. He says while an exact dollar figure of their payroll is not available, they employ about 40 people at the Ashton plant.
An ethanol plant at Hartley, owned by Valero Renewables produces about 135 million gallons of denatured ethanol each year from 48 million bushels of corn, according to Valero Media Relations Director Lillian Riojas. That’s about 131,500 bushels every day. She says the bio-refinery employs about 65 full-time personnel, and their payroll information is not made public.
The other ethanol plant is located near Sioux Center and is part of a producer-owned cooperative called Siouxland Energy & Livestock. Their operations director, Jeff Altena reports that they mill about 24 million bushels of corn into about 68 million gallons of ethanol every year. That’s almost 66,000 bushels per day. He says their payroll is about $2.5 million per year including benefits. He says since they are independent, they employ an ethanol marketer. He says most of their ethanol has been going to the west coast but is marketed across the country.
