Iowa regulators approve renewable energy power line

An underground high-voltage power line to ship electricity from Midwestern renewable energy projects to Eastern markets this week won approval for the portion of its Iowa route from state regulators.

The 350-mile SOO Green HVDC Link will start in Mason City and run to Plano, Ill. The direct current line will be buried underground mostly following a Canadian Pacific railroad right of way, although Iowa regulators approved use of eminent domain to force some private property owners to sell easements.

The SOO Green Line — a name inspired by the former name of the railroad — came from a plan years ago by CNN founder Ted Turner to build a wind farm on his South Dakota property, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported. With no transmission option, a lawyer working for Turner developed the idea for a long-distance power line.

On Wednesday, the Iowa Utilities Board signed off on a plan to build about 174 miles of the 525-kilovolt transmission line in Allamakee, Cerro Gordo, Chickasaw, Clayton, Dubuque, Floyd, Jackson and Winneshiek counties.

While most of the line will be buried on railroad and other public rights of way, the board granted the company eminent domain authority for four parcels in Clayton County and two parcels in Dubuque County.

The company behind the $2.5 billion project, Direct Connect Development, is based in St. Louis Park, Minn., and funded by a global consortium of energy firms, the Star-Tribune reported. Unlike a utility with ratepayers, the SOO Green Line is what’s called a “merchant” power line that relies on energy providers who connect to it to foot the bill.

Backers of the line say it would encourage the development of new renewable power generation in Iowa and directly invest over $446 million in the state.

SOO Green filed its application with the board on Sept. 24, 2020, and scheduled public information meetings in the counties where the line was proposed to go. But meetings were delayed in order to limit public contact during the height of the pandemic. The company paused the process in February 2021 and resumed consideration in September 2022.

Because the project would send electricity generated in a power grid serving Midwest states to one serving mostly Eastern states, the approval process is complicated and requires approval from the Eastern grid as well as from state regulators.