AECI to participate in third wind energy project
Wind Capital Group President Tom Carnahan announced that John Deere Wind Energy and rural electric cooperatives have teamed up again to bring another wind energy project to northwest Missouri. Access Energy Cooperative’s power supplier, Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc. (AECI) will be purchasing the electricity from the wind farms and provide it to 51 member distribution cooperatives that serve more than 800,000 customers in Missouri, northeast Oklahoma and southeast Iowa.
In less than two years AECI will bring more than 150 megawatts of clean, renewable wind energy to Iowa and Missouri. Wind energy is here to stay and will be an ever-increasing part of Iowa and Missouri’s efforts to become energy independent.
Rural electric cooperatives are growing, and more electricity is needed. The wind farms are part of a three-pronged approach to ensure AECI meets their mission of providing reliable, economical energy to rural electric cooperative members.
Associated also is constructing a gas-based power plant, expected to be in service in spring 2007, and has proposed building a coal-based plant in Norborne, Mo., to meet member cooperatives’ growing energy needs.
Third wind project to be in service by year-end 2007
Located near the town of Conception in Nodaway County, the third wind farm will be similar to the first two announced earlier this year. It will consist of 24 Suzlon 2.1-MW turbines, estimated to produce about 180,000 megawatt-hours of energy a year, and be in service by year-end 2007.
About 20 Nodaway County landowners are involved in the Conception project, which will span more than 7,000 acres. Landowners will receive annual lease payments for hosting turbines, and the county will benefit from an expanded tax base and job creation.
As with the first two wind energy projects, John Deere Wind Energy, based in Johnston, Iowa, a unit of Deere & Company, is providing debt and equity investment and co-development services.