The Highland Wind Energy Center is a 501.4
megawatt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
(MW)
wind farm
A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turb ...
in
O'Brien County, Iowa
O'Brien County is a county in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 14,182. The county seat is Primghar.
History
By the time Iowa attained statehood (28 December 1848), its Territorial Legislature had ...
. It became the largest facility in the state when it was placed online in 2015.
Facility details
The facility is part of $1.9 billion in wind power project announced by
MidAmerican Energy
MidAmerican Energy Company is an energy company based in Des Moines, Iowa. Its service area includes almost two-thirds of Iowa, as well as portions of Illinois, South Dakota, and Nebraska. Its territory is wholly encompassed by the territory ...
in 2013. It was the largest project in the world to be built in a single construction phase. Siemens supplied 218 2.3 MW
wind turbines
A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. Wi ...
for the facility.
The facility is located at the southern end of
Buffalo Ridge. The
Rock Island Clean Line HVDC
A high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electric power transmission system (also called a power superhighway or an electrical superhighway) uses direct current (DC) for electric power transmission, in contrast with the more common alternating curre ...
transmission line was proposed to originate just north of the project.
An expansion of the project, formerly known as Highland II was developed by
Invenergy
Invenergy is an American based multinational power generation development and operations company. The company develops, builds, owns and operates power generation and energy storage projects in the Americas, Europe and Asia, including wind, solar, ...
. This expansion was purchased by MidAmerican Energy and constructed in 2016 as the 250 MW O'Brien Wind Farm. It also lies in O'Brien county, just to the north of the Highland project.
O'Brien Wind Project
/ref>
Electricity production
See also
*Wind power in Iowa
Making up over 55% of the state's generated electricity in 2021, wind power is the largest source of electricity generation in Iowa. In 2020, over 34 billion kWh of electrical energy was generated by wind power. As of Q3 2020, Iowa has over 10, ...
*List of wind farms in the United States
This is a list of large wind farms in the United States. Many of the wind farms in the United States are located in the Great Plains.
Onshore wind farms
Listed are wind farms with a generating capacity of at least 150 megawatts (MW) or any ...
References
External links
MidAmerican Energy - Highland Wind Project
Wind farms in Iowa
Buildings and structures in O'Brien County, Iowa
Energy infrastructure completed in 2015
{{wind-farm-stub