MidAmerican breaks ground on 340-MW Iowa wind park

US electricity and natural gas utility MidAmerican Energy Co on Monday announced the launch of construction works on a 340-MW wind farm in the state of Iowa.

Consisting of up to 170 turbines, the wind power facility will be built in Poweshiek County and will be the third part of the company’s 2-GW Wind XI project, MidAmerican said in a statement on Monday. The so-called North English plant is expected to become operational in December 2018.

MidAmerican, which is owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE:BRK.A), said the new wind park will share an operations and maintenance base in Montezuma with the Prairie wind farm, which is also part of the project. Earlier this year, the utility started construction on the first two phases of the complex, Beaver Creek and Prairie, with capacities of 170 MW and 168 MW, respectively.

MidAmerican won clearance for the USD-3.6-billion (EUR 3.09bn) Wind XI project from Iowa regulators in August 2016. The company noted it is currently working to confirm additional sites in Iowa to install the rest of the capacity under the scheme, planning to start construction on more projects in 2018 and 2019.

The Wind XI complex, which will use up to 1,000 turbines by Vestas Wind Systems A/S (CPH:VWS), is slated for commissioning in December 2019.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.860)

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