NEWS

Keep doing it right: Grow wind energy

04/21/2007

Register Editorial Board

Des Moines Register

MidAmerican Energy's announcement that it will more than double current capacity for wind-energy production is welcome news for Iowa. It will mean clean energy at reasonable rates while creating new jobs to build, install and maintain the turbines.

The development of Iowa's wind-energy industry also offers a blueprint for other state and national efforts to boost production of renewable energy and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, tied to global warming.

Simply put: Set targets that businesses will have to stretch to meet, which will spur research and innovation, and provide tax incentives to allow cost competitiveness with conventional technology.

Iowa has done a lot right in working to harvest potential from the state's abundant winds. Back in 2003, Gov. Tom Vilsack challenged Iowa's utilities, businesses and regulators to work together to increase the state's production of renewable energy to more than 1,000 megawatts by 2010. It was a voluntary call to action, not a mandate, but they responded. When MidAmerican completes a wind project in Pocahontas County later this year, the goal will be met. Iowa ranks third in the country, behind Texas and California, in installed wind-energy capacity.

MidAmerican already ranks No. 1 in the country among rated-regulated utilities in ownership of wind installations. About 10 percent of its electricity comes from renewable energy, mostly wind. The additional capacity announced Thursday will boost that to 18 percent.

A decade ago, many engineers would have considered those percentages impossible. The problem with wind, as Iowans well know, is that sometimes it blows a lot, and sometimes not. To push that percentage a lot higher, breakthroughs will be needed in storing excess electricity generated when the wind is blowing for the times when it's not.

Based on current technology and the knowledge it's already gained, though, MidAmerican is confident it can do more, said Dean Crist, a MidAmerican vice president. The company also said the project - which could approach nearly $1 billion in investment - will not raise electricity rates.

Gov. Chet Culver seized the occasion of MidAmerican's announcement to set a new goal: 2,015 megawatts of capacity by 2015. One megawatt can serve about 270 homes. If the new target is met, Iowa would generate enough electricity from renewable sources to serve more than 540,000 homes.

Sometimes, the public threat or benefit is so great that mandates are called for. One might be required to force reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions to address global warming, for example. But don't underestimate the impact of leadership. President Bush's short statements on renewable fuels in his last two State of the Union addresses helped propel a flurry of investment in energy alternatives.

To spur action, such talk usually must be matched with government incentives to finance research and development and to level the economic playing field with traditional technology. A federal tax credit is key to the economics of wind energy. It's written to expire every two years, and was due to expire at the end of this year. In December, Congress extended it another year, until the end of 2008. The built-in uncertainty of the rolling expiration dates discourages companies from investing in projects that take years to pay off. Congress needs to enact a tax credit companies can rely on.

The state and federal governments should continue investing in research into storage technologies, and business and regulators will need to work together to increase transmission capacity, too. In Iowa, the northwest corner of the state has the best sites for wind, but not much transmission capacity. Nationally, the wind of the Great Plains is far from the population centers on the coasts.

Such investments are a small price to help build an industry with possibilities almost as limitless as the wind.