O’Brien County, Iowa — O’Brien County will be the site of one of a pair of new MidAmerican Energy Company wind farms, according to an announcement by the energy company.
The Company says they plan to begin construction in the spring of 2016 on the new wind farm in O’Brien County, as well as a second in Ida Grove. MidAmerican says these new wind farms will add up to 552 megawatts of wind generation capacity. The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2016.
The Ida Grove project will be the first wind farm built in Ida County, while O’Brien becomes the second major development for MidAmerican Energy in this county. The company says their Highland wind farm in O’Brien County is the largest land-based wind farm currently under construction in the United States and will be MidAmerican Energy’s largest wind farm upon completion late this year. They say they also have plans that call for approximately 134 turbines and up to 301 megawatts of generation capacity at the new Ida Grove wind farm, and approximately 104 turbines and 250 megawatts of generation capacity at the new O’Brien wind farm.
With the addition of the Ida Grove and O’Brien wind farms, MidAmerican Energy will operate wind farms in 23 Iowa counties. By the end of 2016, MidAmerican Energy’s wind assets in Iowa will include more than 2,000 turbines.
MidAmerican Energy Company provides electric service to 746,000 customers and natural gas service to 726,000 customers in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and South Dakota. It is headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa.
