USA: March 27, 2003
SAN FRANCISCO - A power company controlled by billionaire investor Warren Buffett said this week it plans to build, somewhere in Iowa, the largest land-based wind farm in the world.
The $323 million, 310-megawatt project, to be built by MidAmerican Energy Co. in northwest or north-central Iowa, would have 180 to 200 turbines with the capacity to generate electricity for more than 300,000 homes on completion, which is expected in 2006. Des Moines, Iowa-based MidAmerican Energy is a unit of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., majority-owned by Buffett's holding company Berkshire Hathaway Inc..
The wind farm, which would require approval by the Iowa Public Utilities Board and state legislation on the ownership and operations of renewable energy sources, would top a 300-megawatt project near the Oregon-California border as the largest land-based wind farm in the world.
Texas and California also are big generators of wind power, and the U.S. had total capacity of about 4,700 megawatts at the end of 2002, according to the American Wind Energy Association.
Germany is the biggest wind power nation, with more than 12,000 megawatts in total capacity, while Ireland has approved plans to build a 520-megawatt wind station in the Irish Sea.
"Wind generation is going from a boutique business to kind of a mainstream business, and we will see more of this as utilities gain confidence in the technology," said Bob Thresher, director of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Wind Technology Center.
Thresher said wind power is becoming "a cost-effective source of energy and a hedge against other fuel sources."
Greg Abel, president of MidAmerican Energy Holdings, said the company plans to freeze its electricity rates in Iowa through 2010.
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