Renewable and alternative energy projects took center stage in ENR Midwest’s Top Starts list, which ranks the 50 largest projects to break ground in 2017. Natural gas pipelines and hydropower transmission projects promise a sustainable future for the region. A second consecutive year of major growth in wind farms showed that the energy infrastructure focus isn’t waning and some major university investments showed how some of that energy will be used.
MidAmerican Energy plans to install $3.6 billion worth of wind turbines in Iowa by the end of 2019. The most recent project, Wind XI, marks the largest economic development project in the state’s history. The company’s 170-MW Beaver Creek wind project in Boone and Greene counties has 85 turbines and started service at the end of 2017, while the 168-MW Prairie wind project in Mahaska County has 84 turbines and began producing energy in January.