Iowa remains top player in wind power industry

Wind energy developers installed more capacity in Iowa than in all except two other states during 2009, a record year for wind energy development in the United States.

The 879 megawatts of wind energy capacity developed in Iowa was enough to keep the state's second-place ranking in installed wind energy capacity and first place ranking in wind energy capacity per resident, according to the American Wind Energy Association's 2009 market report. It said Iowa also has attracted more major wind equipment manufacturers than any other state.

Cedar Rapids-based ITC Midwest connected 716 megawatts of installed new wind generation to the grid in 2009, company spokesman Tom Peterson. The energy came from five new Iowa wind farms. The company has been expanding and improving its transmission system to bring more wind energy to markets.

More than 10,000 megawatts of new wind energy capacity was installed across the United States in 2009, 39 percent of all the electric generating capacity added for the year. Natural gas turbines made up most of the rest. The greatest amount of new wind capacity,

2,292 megawatts, was installed in Texas.

The trade group released the report as it pushed for a national renewable energy standard that would require a specific percentage of the nation's electric supply to come from wind and other renewable sources.

“A national RES (renewable energy standard) will provide the long-term certainty that businesses need to invest tens of billions of dollars in new installations and manufacturing facilities which would create hundreds of thousands of American jobs,” association President Denise Bode said.

Iowa passed one of the nation's first renewable standards in 1983, requiring utilities to obtain 2 percent of their electricity from renewable sources.

The wind power industry already benefits from federal tax incentives that reward development of new wind power.

The group said the wind power industry employs about 85,000 in the United States, including companies that manufacture wind turbines, install wind turbines, and maintain wind turbines.

The installation of smaller wind turbines typically owned by the property owner where the turbine is installed has been growing at an even faster rate than large wind farms, although it remains a tiny fraction of the total.

“The wind business in the state is going gangbusters, and I think it's going to get better,” said Mike Carberry, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Energy Association in Iowa City. The group plans to promote education and policies to support small wind generation as a way to expand the industry.

Lease payments by wind farm operators in Iowa totaled $11 million in 2009, according to the report. It said the wind power installed last year in Iowa will avoid

6.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, one of the major contributors to climate change, annually.