Using food analogies, he said some materials in the blades are like a fried egg. Once they're cooked, they can't be changed. If those materials were more like chocolate, they could be melted, reformed and used to make something else. His team is working to see if blades can be manufactured differently, maintaining their toughness while allowing for reuse when they've done their job. The blades must be able to last 30 years under stressful conditions. Consumers will pay none of the wind costs, Greenwood said.
MidAmerican Energy has set a goal to create as much energy from wind as its , Iowa electric customers use over a year. Despite the big investment, coal is still Iowa's largest source of energy to produce electricity, followed by wind and other renewable energy and natural gas.
Michael McCoy, executive director of the Metro Waste Authority in Des Moines, said Iowa needs to figure out how best to recycle the blades, given wind energy's growing presence in Iowa.
It's a process Metro Waste Authority tackled when a company that recycles construction and demolition waste closed, leaving mountains of unprocessed waste. Frank Peters, an Iowa State University associate professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, said graduate students looked at whether chopped-up blades could replace gravel in making concrete. But it wasn't financially viable, given how much energy was needed to process the blades.
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Iowa Ideas Sep. News 2h ago. Gazette Des Moines Bureau. News Nov. Community Nov. Already, solar is slated to take a big leap forward in Iowa, with seven large projects under development or recently completed. They would add about 1, megawatts if they're completed, nine times more solar capacity than now exists, filings with the Iowa Utilities Board show.
Wind, however, has become Iowa's chief source of net electricity generation. It surpassed coal in , the Energy Information Administration says. More: Des Moines sets ambitious targets to lower greenhouse gas emissions, go carbon-free by Alliant Energy, Iowa's second-largest utility, announced in October that it plans to retire its Lansing coal-fired power plant in northeast Iowa over the next two years as it shifts to more solar, wind and other renewable energy sources.
The plant's retirement is part of Alliant's broader goal to eliminate coal from its power generation system by , the company said. Proponents say wind farms bring needed tax revenue to rural counties, cities and schools as well as to farmers. More: Is wind power saving rural Iowa or wrecking it?
But opposition to wind development has been growing in Iowa. Some neighbors of wind farms say the turbines' noise and spinning blades cause headaches, nausea and interrupt sleep , among other problems. And they say the landowners benefiting from wind lease payments often don't live near the turbines and don't suffer their effects.
In January, Madison County supervisors approved wind development setback requirements that opponents say amount to a ban on turbines.
MidAmerican, which has a wind project planned in the county, is challenging the ordinance in court. A USA Today report from earlier this year noted the reliable income from wind energy can help steady farmers dealing with a turbulent economy. But the state's rapid investment in wind and other forms of renewable energy has prompted concern by the Iowa Farm Bureau about the loss of farmland. The organization earlier this year supported statewide regulations on where wind and solar farms can be built.
Some Iowans who live near wind farms have complained about the turbines , although researchers say there's little evidence of health impacts.
Facebook Twitter Email. Wind blows by coal to become Iowa's largest source of electricity.
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