Des Moines Register
12-03-06
Harvest wealth from Iowa's winds
Invest in research, development to tap its vast potential.
The production of biofuels and their biochemical spinoffs is going to reshape
Iowa's economy in the near future.
Longer range, something even bigger might be blowing in the wind.
Literally.
Wind is an energy resource of breathtaking possibilities. It is clean, endlessly
renewable and delivered free to our doorstep.
As with ethanol, Iowa is an early leader in harvesting the wind, ranking third
nationally (and No. 1 per capita) in installed capacity to generate electricity from
wind. But we have only begun to tap it. Major scientific breakthroughs and big
investments will be needed to realize anything close to the full potential of wind.
Iowa should eagerly invest in and lobby for those breakthroughs, because the
payoff could be huge. Envision Iowa as an energy-exporting state considerably
wealthier than the Iowa of today.
Action centers on Great Plains
Northwest of a line roughly from Dubuque to Council Bluffs, the winds blow
strongly and consistently enough to make generating electricity from wind cost
effective. As the technology of wind turbines improves, electricity from wind might
become a viable choice for most of the rest of Iowa as well.
Iowa is on the edge of the vast, wind-swept Great Plains, stretching from North
Dakota to Texas. There is enough wind in the region to supply all of the energy
needs of the entire United States - not just the electricity, but total energy.
In Iowa alone, 62,900 megawatts of electricity could be generated, according to a
study cited by the Iowa Energy Center at Iowa State University. A rule of
thumb is that one megawatt can serve about 270 homes, so that's enough
electricity for nearly 17 million homes. (Iowa's population is about 3 million).
MidAmerican Energy has already installed more wind-generating capacity than
any other rate-regulated utility in the nation. It has more than 695 megawatts of
capacity in operation, under contract or under construction in Iowa. The utility will
almost single-handedly meet Gov. Tom Vilsack's statewide goal of 1,000
megawatts of generation from renewable sources by 2010.
The elegant wind farms sprouting in northwest Iowa help MidAmerican keep its
pledge not to increase rates to its customers, and the turbines keep money in
Iowa that otherwise would go to Wyoming to purchase coal for electric
generation.
Turbines generate economic benefits
Having a wind turbine on your land is like having an oil well that never runs dry.
Land owners receive rental payments estimated at $2,000 to $5,000 per turbine,
and local governments receive property-tax payments. Operating and
maintaining the turbines provides well-paying, high-skill jobs in rural areas where
such jobs are hard to find.
The U.S. Department of Energy has estimated the local economic benefits of
wind farms to be considerably higher than those from coal- or gas-fired
generating plants, and wind farms are virtually pollution free.
If the United States gets serious about trying to curb global warming - and it
should - then it will cap carbon emissions from burning coal, natural gas and
petroleum, and those fossil fuels eventually will be phased out. The main carbonfree alternatives are wind, solar cells and nuclear power.
Wind makes the most sense in this part of the country.
Imagine ubiquitous wind turbines powering Iowa industries, creating jobs,
enriching Iowa communities and exporting electricity eastward to less-windy
states, not only to power homes and industries but electric vehicles as well.
But it won't happen right away.
Storage poses biggest hurdle
Wind has a well-known disadvantage that, for now, prevents it from becoming a
dominant source of electricity: It doesn't blow all the time. And there's no good
way to store excess electricity when the wind is blowing for use when it is not.
Until the storage problem is solved, wind can't be more than a supplemental
source of electricity.
The Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities is working on one possibility. It intends
to build an Iowa Stored Energy Park. The idea is to use electricity to compress
air, which will be stored in geologic formations underground. At periods of low
wind, the compressed air would be retrieved and, in combination with natural
gas, used to re-generate electricity.
Bob Haug, president of the association, said a suitable underground storage
location has been found, and further progress will be announced later this month.
The goal is to begin operating in 2011.
Another possibility for storage is to use wind-generated electricity to produce
hydrogen from water. The hydrogen could be stored in tanks or put into pipelines.
At the other end of the pipe, the hydrogen could be burned like natural gas, or
fuel cells could be used to convert the hydrogen back into electricity.
Transmission is another big barrier. The wind on the Plains is a long way from
the electrical demand in the cities. Upgrading the national electric grid will require
major investment.
Here's what Iowa, nation should do
Iowa and the federal government should make research on possible storage and
transmission technologies an urgent priority.
Congress also needs to enact a tax credit for wind-generated electricity that
producers can rely on. The existing credit has to be rescued from expiration
every two years, creating periodic uncertainty in the industry. In general, Iowans
should urge the state's congressional delegation to act at the national level to
advance conversion to wind as a primary power source.
On the state level, Iowa has done a reasonably good job with a variety of
programs to encourage development of wind power. The state needs to fine-tune
those efforts, especially to make the process easier for small projects to
interconnect with major utilities.
Iowa should embrace wind's enormous possibilities. In combination with a
thriving biofuels industry, wind can make Iowa a richer, more exciting place, the
very hub of renewable energy in America.