Iowa Wind Resources Help Keep The Lights On

Moving with the 'go green' train, Iowa has found itself in the perfect position to use its resources of flat lands and strong winds to create cheaper energy. So how do the winds create energy?

We need an energy resource that is completely sustainable. When something is sustainable it is unable to be completely used up, or in other words, a renewable source. Corn, for example, is a renewable source that we can use to replace oil when our oil resources are completely dried up. It is something that we can grow every year, and therefore becomes a sustainable source of energy. Likewise, wind is a source of energy that will never disappear and can even be created by man in times of need, like with a fan, or in this case, a really big fan that is also known as a turbine.

Iowa has some of the most turbines of any state within the country and the opportunity to develop even more. The winds in the Midwest are considered to be some of the best winds available for wind energy projects. In fact, there are actually four different wind regions that blow across Iowa, but most of them are in the northern part of the state. Even with all of these different winds blowing through the state, the wind is still not constant enough to try and use only wind energy as a resource in the southern part of the state, but many agencies are still working on solving this part of the problem.

Within Iowa there are many fields with rows upon rows of turbines. These fields are called wind farms. The farms use turbines as a way to create natural and sustainable energy around the state. In 2000 there were around 260 turbines throughout the state of Iowa that contributed to giving over 30,000 homes all of their electricity and power.

This push towards wind energy started in Iowa in the mid 1990's with a project developed by the Iowa Energy Center. They created a plan that would spread turbines over 40 different sections of land. The legislators went even further to help support these projects by giving government funding that would also help the economy. Building the turbines to create these man-made natural resources would take man power and time, both of which would come from contracts from the government, to the companies that would contract the workers. Many in Iowa have felt the positive effects of the turbines.

So what is the difference between the energy the turbines create and the energy the electricity company provides? The turbines, after being completely paid for, can create energy using less energy, therefore making the cost of the customer's energy cheaper than it would have otherwise been.

Another great thing about the turbines is that as they spread, it is becoming impossible for the electric companies to deny their customers using them. It has always been that when someone wanted electricity, they were forced to use the electricity from the power company within their region. But now, with the spread of the resources the turbines and wind farms provide, customers will have a choice of where they get their power from.

The only concern with this is that whoever owns the grid on which the wind farms sit will get to choose who they give power to, which could mean a drive up in prices and contracts awarded to bigger companies with more resources to spend.

Only the future will tell what the turbines will bring, but for now, it's looking pretty windy outside in Iowa, and that's nothing to get all blown out of shape over.

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