MidAmerican Energy is upgrading more than 700 of its wind turbines at three wind farms spread across six Iowa counties. Adam Jacobi (jah-COE-bee), spokesman for the Des Moines-based utility, says work is underway at the company’s Century Wind Farm in north-central Iowa’s Hamilton and Wright counties.
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The process involves upgrading the turbines with improved technology and putting longer blades on the existing towers to produce more power.
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Jacobi says most of the turbines that are being upgraded were installed in 2004 and ’05, so they’ve been in place well over a decade already. The “repowering” will bring a sizeable boost to the power-generating abilities of each tower.
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MidAmerican has entered into agreements with General Electric to complete the upgrades at the three wind farms.