One of the largest single investments in Alliant Energy’s multiyear plan to create cleaner and more efficient ways to generate electricity will be a $1-billion expansion of an Iowa wind farm, adding 500 MW of capacity to the 200 MW now in place. Details of the expansion, announced July 27, are still being worked out, a spokesman for the Wisconsin-based utility says, but the project is scheduled for commercial operation in 2020—in time to earn the renewable-energy tax credit.
Alliant Energy’s Iowa utility, Interstate Power & Light Co. (IPL), is seeking regulatory approval to expand its Whispering Willow Wind Farm in Franklin County, Iowa, and possibly develop wind energy in other areas of the state. The new wind project is part of Alliant’s clean energy vision. The company aims to achieve a 40% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions below the 2005 level by 2030. This project, with several others, is being prosecuted under the terms of a July 15, 2015, settlement agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Sierra Club, Linn County and the State of Iowa.