Iowa well-positioned with wind to meet EPA’s Clean Power

Wind power is a big deal in Iowa. It’s also a very good deal, considering Iowa's world-class wind resources and its manufacturing base. That makes wind energy a low-cost tool to comply with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Power Plan, the first national effort to cut carbon pollution from existing power plants.

The draft EPA proposal leaves it up to individual states as to how they want to reduce emissions, and Iowa is well positioned to protect existing jobs, create new ones and make the state more competitive by expanding wind energy as a central feature of its plan.

“As wind energy grows, so does the economy.” That’s what Gov. Terry Branstad said after the Des Moines-based MidAmerican Energy, Iowa’s largest utility, announced plans last year to spend close to $2 billion to install hundreds of wind turbines in Iowa. That equals the largest economic development project in Iowa’s history.

Wind power’s total contribution to Iowa’s economy is impressive, adding $10 billion in capital investment to date and supporting thousands of jobs statewide. Our company, TPI Composites, builds large blades for wind turbines in Iowa. Our manufacturing facility in Newton now supports more than 800 jobs and, since our facility opened six years ago, workers at the plant have told us how much these jobs have meant to their community.

Iowa is blessed with strong wind resources. Over 27 percent of Iowa’s electricity now comes from reliable wind power, making it number one in the U.S. in terms of wind penetration. Keeping Iowa lights on with wind power cuts the expense of producing electricity by displacing the most expensive, least efficient power sources on the grid.

MidAmerican’s investment to help Iowa harvest more wind power is expected to save customers up to $10 million per year once built. Wind energy also has no fuel cost, protecting consumers from the volatile price of other energy sources.

Iowa farmers call wind farms their drought-resistant cash crop. Over $16 million a year in wind farm lease payments to Iowa landowners creates added economic security.

Wind farms also help Iowa farmers by not competing for sometimes scarce water resources. Producing electricity with wind energy emits no air pollution and uses virtually no water, saving billions of gallons of water a year by taking the place of other sources that are heavy water users.

Iowa is in the top five states nationally in tons of carbon dioxide emissions reduced through wind energy, with emissions reduced by nearly 14 percent. These reductions have already put Iowa in a strong position to meet the EPA’s new carbon reduction plan, and additional wind turbines will cost-effectively bring Iowa into compliance.

Carbon-free wind energy can be sold to other states that lack Iowa’s world-class wind resources but want to cost-effectively reduce their emissions.

Thanks to leadership by Republican and Democratic Iowa policymakers, wind energy has been a great asset for creating jobs and diversifying Iowa’s energy mix. Gov. Branstad, Sens. Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin, and Reps. Steve King, Tom Latham, Bruce Braley and Dave Loebsack, understood wind power’s potential early on and Iowa is now reaping the benefits.

If legislators in other states use Iowa as a model, they too can embrace the economic benefits that go with tapping into carbon-free electricity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Steve Lockard is president of TPI Composites Inc., a global supplier of structural composites based in Scottsdale, Ariz. Contact: slockard@tpicomposites.com.