Siemens. They have been asked by MidAmerican Energy to supply no less than 448 turbines. Yep, as the title suggests it is the world’s largest order ever for onshore wind turbines.
The turbines are for five wind farms that are to be established in the US state of Iowa. The output will be 1050 MW which is enough energy to power over 300,000 homes. The manufacture, assembling and commissioning of the turbines will create 40 permanent jobs and 1,000 construction jobs for a two year period. Siemens will manufacture the blades at their Fort Madison facility in Iowa, while the nacelles will be produced at their factory in Hutchinson, Kansas. Siemens will also be supplying the towers. The total cost is almost $2 billion.
Bill Fehrman, MidAmerican’s CEO, said that production tax credits are key to the company’s wind projects and enabled this giant venture to get off the ground. However the federal tax credits are due to end on the 31st December this year. Fehrman said:
“We’re continuing to work with our congressional delegations and others to try and continue that credit going forward. It’s not clear where exactly that may stand, but clearly with regard to these projects, the benefit of the tax credit was very crucial to our decision to move forward with this project. The production tax credit, for us to continue to do projects going forward … would have to be in place.”
Siemens said that each wind turbines to be used would have a nominal rating of 2.3 megawatts and a rotor diameter of 108 metres. Siemens will also be responsible for service and maintenance of the wind turbines. The five projects should be completed during 2015.
In Europe and Africa Siemens successfully installed more than 1 gigawatt of wind production in the last financial year. They have also installed 1.2GW of wind power for MidAmerican Energy up till now.
It’s no surprise that the five wind farm projects are to be in Iowa; Iowa is one of the leading U.S. states in wind energy generation. In 2012, around a quarter of total power generation in the state was provided by wind power.
