Alliant Energy’s Marshalltown plant receives sustainability award

Less than one month into operations, Alliant Energy's Marshalltown generation station has become the state's first to receive national recognition from the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure.

The $700 million natural gas-fired facility, which began generating power April 1, has earned the Washington, D.C.-based institute's Envision award for sustainable infrastructure, according to a Tuesday news release.

'We are proud to receive the Envision Platinum Award for our Marshalltown Generating Station project,” Doug Kopp, president of Alliant Energy's Iowa utility, said in a Tuesday news release. 'The facility advances clean energy for our customers and communities, while significantly reducing our environmental footprint.”

The 650-megawatt capacity facility will provide enough power for about 500,000 Iowa homes and businesses. The generation station will emit less than half of the carbon dioxide, about two-thirds less nitrogen oxide and close to 99 percent less sulfur and mercury compared to traditional coal-fired plants, the release states.

Kopp said ISI Envision guidelines helped the plant reach such esteemed standards through collaboration with architect HDR.

'Envision definitely helped our project team design and deliver more sustainability and economic benefits in the development of our Marshalltown facility,” Kopp said in the release. 'The system guided and enabled us to add several environmentally-friendly features to our construction and site plans.”

The Envision system, which was created by ISI and the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, measures sustainability in five categories - quality of life, leadership, natural world, resource allocation and climate and risk.

'ISI is pleased to present the Marshalltown Generating Station with the Envision Platinum award for sustainable infrastructure,” ISI President and CEO John Stanton said in the release. 'Residents, businesses and industries in Marshalltown and beyond will benefit from the increased generating capacity and improved reliability of the electrical supply for decades to come. This project will also improve Marshalltown's environmental conditions.”

Last month, Alliant officials announced plans for a 10 percent to 12 percent rate increase, due in large part to about $2.5 billion in capital investments into the electrical system - into such efforts as power grid upgrades and the new Marshalltown generating station - since the last rate increase about six years ago.

The first, $3 to $5 per month increase in rates began this month.

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