Watch MidAmerican build tallest wind turbine in the U.S.
It took about 30 weeks, but MidAmerican Energy has built the tallest land-based wind turbine in the nation in southern Iowa.
The Des Moines-based power company captured construction of the 379-foot concrete turbine in a video posted on YouTube, and provided the Register a shorter version.
Measuring to the blade tips, the super tall turbine reaches to 557 feet, making it taller than the Washington Monument.
EFCO Corp. of Des Moines provided the concrete forms needed to build the 24 segments that formed the turbine. The new turbine is about 100 feet taller than its steel cousin.
Building a taller tower allows MidAmerican to capture more wind energy, the utility has said.
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The foundation alone required about 70 trucks of concrete and 90 tons of steel rebar.
Altogether, the tower has about 80 miles of reinforcing steel running through it.
The 2.4-megawatt wind turbine weighs an amazing 1,200 tons.
MidAmerican contracted with Siemens to supply and construct its new concrete tower design
Siemens and MidAmerican see the prototype as the model for other concrete turbine towers at future wind farms. It would open up "low-to-medium wind resource areas of Iowa for future wind development," MidAmerican said.
The concrete turbine is one of 64 wind turbines planned at MidAmerican's Adams County wind farm. Construction at the 154-megawatt project is scheduled to be completed by year's end.
Siemens supplied the wind turbine blades for the entire Adams project from its blade factory in Fort Madison.