World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

April 16, 2006 – Vol.11 No.4

WORLD WIND WATCH.

Like solar energy, Earth Day, as always, brings a round of announcements for new wind energy capacity.

MidAmerican Energy has received approval from the Iowa Utilities Board to build 545 megawatts of new wind capacity in the state. The first project will be a 99-megawatt project in Carroll and Crawford counties. The project will be built by Invenergy.

The company also has reached an agreement with the Iowa Farmers Union to create the opportunity for small community-based wind projects to connect to the grid. Projects can be as large as 2.5 megawatts. MidAmerican will buy as much as 40 megawatts of wind power.

MidAmerican already has 360 megawatts of wind capacity in its portfolio. Visit MidAmerican at http://www.midamericanenergy.com/

Wisconsin Power and Light has changed its 2006 - 2013 supply plan for power generation to include 300 megawatts of wind energy. The plan has previously called for 100 megawatts of wind energy.

TXU Corporation’s new energy supply plan calls for 700 megawatts of new renewable capacity. (And, unfortunately, 11 (ELEVEN!) new coal fired plants for 8600 megawatts of dirty power.)

The new green capacity, expected to be mostly wind, will bring the Texas company’s total renewable capacity to 1400 megawatts. The company has also started a renewable energy division, TXU Renew. Visit TXU at http://www.txucorp.com/

FPL Energy has broken ground on the largest wind farm in North Dakota - the Oliver County Wind Energy Center. Oliver will have 22, 2.3 megawatt turbines for a nameplate capacity of 50.6-megawatts. The facility is owned and will be operated by FPL Energy and its power will be sold to Minnesota Power. Visit FPL at http://www.fplenergy.com/