Highland Wind Energy Center

Wind farm in Iowa, USA

43°05′N 95°34′W / 43.083°N 95.567°W / 43.083; -95.567StatusOperationalConstruction began2013Commission date2015Construction costabout $1 billionOwner(s)MidAmerican Energy CompanyOperator(s)MidAmerican Energy CompanyWind farm TypeOnshorePower generation Units operational218Make and modelSiemens 2.3 MWNameplate capacity501.4 MWCapacity factor38.6% (average 2016-2018)Annual net output1,694 GW·h

[edit on Wikidata]

The Highland Wind Energy Center is a 501.4 megawatt (MW) wind farm in O'Brien County, Iowa. It became the largest facility in the state when it was placed online in 2015.

Facility details

The facility is part of $1.9 billion in wind power project announced by MidAmerican Energy in 2013. It was the largest project in the world to be built in a single construction phase. Siemens supplied 218 2.3 MW wind turbines for the facility.^[1]

The facility is located at the southern end of Buffalo Ridge. The Rock Island Clean Line HVDC transmission line was proposed to originate just north of the project.^[2]

An expansion of the project, formerly known as Highland II was developed by Invenergy.^[3] This expansion was purchased by MidAmerican Energy and constructed in 2016 as the 250 MW O'Brien Wind Farm. It also lies in O'Brien county, just to the north of the Highland project.^[4]

Electricity production

Highland Wind Energy Center Electricity Generation (MW·h)^[5]
Year	Total Annual MW·h
2015	549,863
2016	1,809,682
2017	1,726,146
2018	1,545,240
Average (years 2016–2018) --->	1,693,689

References

^ "MidAmerican begins construction on Iowa's largest wind project". Power Engineering. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
^ "Wind energy boom blows into Northwest Iowa county". Sioux City Journal. 2 March 2014.
^ "O'Brien County's 2nd major wind farm on fast track". Cherokee Chronicle Times. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
^ O'Brien Wind Project
^ "Highland Wind, Annual". Electricity Data Browser. Energy Information Administration. Retrieved March 23, 2019.