GreenBeat

With eco-friendly legislation looming on the horizon in the U.S., states are racing to roll out their green economic development plans. Crown champ California, solar-happy Arizona and the efficiency-conscious Northeast are all coming down the home stretch, and few would have predicted Iowa would break into their ranks. But it has — becoming the No. 2 wind power producer in the country behind Texas (an unbeatable foe, generating as much as its three top rivals combined).

You can credit Iowa’s quick and open regulatory environment and political leadership for its accomplishments in renewable energy. But then, there’s the land too. It’s flat (“flat” doesn’t even really say how flat), making it easy for wind currents to build up power before rushing through fields upon fields of turbines. This is, after all, tornado country.

There is much to be said for Iowa governor Chet Culver, who has taken advantage of Iowa’s newly-prized flatness by driving green-friendly initiatives through the expeditious state legislature. In 2005, the state offered 1.5 cents in tax credits per kilowatt-hour generated by wind. Given that each turbine might produce three or four megawatts at peak capacity, just one hour of high-speed wind could rack up $6,000 in tax credits. Under this system, neighborhoods get clean power and the utilities still get paid. A seeming win-win.

Construction of green power facilities has generated a great deal of tax revenue for the state as well. Each 1,000 megawatts of wind power installed accounts for $6 million in taxes, to be exact — not to mention the thousands of jobs created wherever another plant is built. For all the above reasons, and the state’s proximity to other growing wind markets, Clipper Windpower (notably, a California-based company) chose Cedar Rapids as the site for its new turbine production facility in 2006.

To put the achievement in context, Kansas has about twice the wind power potential as Iowa, but it doesn’t have the same political support. In 2007, Iowa designated a new state committee, the Office of Energy Independence, to distribute $25 million in renewable energy grants to companies looking to build turbines and wind farms — one of the most generous state-run plans around.

The only problem preventing Iowa from really giving chase to Texas is transmission. Right now, the state suffers from having too much power spread out over too few lines — partially due to the other states using the Eastern Interconnect power grid. If and when the existing lines reach a saturation point, Iowa will need to cooperate with its neighbors to decide where to build new power lines, how many, and on who’s dime — a much thornier problem than mere construction.

Last week, VentureBeat reported on the Tres Amigas power station proposed for New Mexico — a high-capacity super station that would essentially connect the East, West, and Texas Interconnects (the three major U.S. electrical grids). If it is built as pitched, the issue of transmission could fall under the federal budget and jurisdiction. Then Iowa’s ability to build more wind farms and market the energy generated to other states could be satisfied by a national-scale transmission project. Otherwise, the state might have to bargain piecemeal with its neighbors. Not everyone wants someone else’s power lines draped across their fair state.

VentureBeat is hosting GreenBeat, the seminal executive conference on the Smart Grid, on Nov. 18-19, featuring keynotes from Nobel Prize winner Al Gore and Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr. Get your early-bird tickets for $625 before Oct. 31 at GreenBeat2009.com.

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Tags: co:Clipper Windpower, co:Tres Amigas