Iowa Wind
To understand the impact of wind on the Iowa, start at the origin of the land's topography. Iowa's landscape was formed over one million years ago. The glaciers left behind a smooth landscape. A moraine of abundant grasslands and shallow wetlands.
The Baxoje Tribe, the original inhabitants, named the terrain: IOWAY--'the beautiful land'.
Glaciers created the black, rich dirt--an ideal combination of silt, clay, and sand. The most fertile soil in the world. The topography of Iowa consists of a gently rolling plain that slopes from the highest point of 1,670 ft (509 m) in the northwest to the lowest point of 480 ft (146 m) in the southeast at the mouth of the Des Moines River. (city-data.com)
In westernmost Iowa, the Loess Hills rise 200 feet above the flat plains forming a narrow band running north-south 200 miles along the Missouri River. The steep angles and sharp bluffs on the western side of the Loess Hills are in sharp contrast to the flat rectangular cropfields of the Missouri River flood plain. The extreme thickness of the loess layers and the intricately carved terrain of the Loess Hills make them a rare geologic feature. Today we know that loess was eolian (deposited by the wind). During the Ice Age, glaciers ground underlying rock into a fine powderlike sediment called "glacial flour." As temperatures warmed, sediment eventually deposited on flood plains downstream, eventually creating the Loess Hills.
Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. On the surface of the Earth, wind consists of the bulk movement of air. Winds are commonly classified by their spatial scale, their speed, the types of forces that cause them, the regions in which they occur, and their effect. Winds have various aspects, an important one being its velocity (wind speed); another the density of the gas involved; another its energy content or wind energy.
Like many surrounding midwestern states, Iowa has particularly higher speeds of wind because of its topography. There is little friction to slow wind speeds, especially at the higher levels. As noted in the map below, average wind speeds in Northwest Iowa can reach up to six meters per second. These high altitude wind speeds make the state an excellent choice for wind farms across the northwestern part of the state which has seen a dramatic increase in wind energy production.
Making up more than 35% of the state's generated electricity, Iowa is a leading U.S. state in wind power generation. The development of wind power in Iowa began with a state law, enacted in 1983, requiring investor owned utilities purchase 105 MW of power from wind generation. In 2016, over 20 billion kWh of electrical energy was generated by wind power. As of February 2016, Iowa had over 6,300 megawatts (MW) of capacity. By 2020 the percentage of wind generated electricity in Iowa could reach 40 percent.
Tornadoes are vertical funnels of rapidly spinning air. Their winds may top 250 miles (400 kilometers) an hour and can clear a pathway a mile (1.6 kilometers) wide and 50 miles (80 kilometers) long (National Geographic). Iowa is part of the area in the U.S. known as Tornado Alley. On average, Iowa experiences about eight tornadoes per year. The map below was created through the Iowa Environment Mesonet site hosted by Iowa State University.
As noted by National Geographic, a tornado forms when changes in wind speed and direction create a horizontal spinning effect within a storm cell. This effect is then tipped vertical by rising air moving up through the thunderclouds.
Making up more than 35% of the state's generated electricity, Iowa is a leading U.S. state in wind power generation. The development of wind power in Iowa began with a state law, enacted in 1983, requiring investor owned utilities purchase 105 MW of power from wind generation. In 2016, over 20 billion kWh of electrical energy was generated by wind power. As of February 2016, Iowa had over 6,300 megawatts of capacity. By 2020 the percentage of wind generated electricity in Iowa could reach 40 percent (Wikipedia, 2017). Wind has become one of Iowa's major resources. According to Slate Magazine (August, 2017) In Iowa, 58 megawatts of wind capacity are currently under construction, and the number of wind-related jobs in the state is expected to hit 17,300 in 2020.
According to the American Wind Energy Association, more than 36 percent of Iowa's in-state electricity production comes from wind, one of the fastest-growing energy sources in the country. The state is first in the nation in wind energy as a share of total electricity generated, second in installed wind capacity, and second in the amount of money landowners make in lease payments, at more than $10 million a year. Iowa's leadership in renewables dates back to 1983, when it became the first state to adopt a renewable portfolio standard.
As noted in an article from Slate's online magazine, there's a common theme in feel-good news stories about wind energy: a renewable energy source coming to the rescue of poor rural folk in the form of rent payments and tax revenues. But life on the ground around the 4,000 turbines in Iowa is complicated, and the experiences of the people living near them varies, usually depending on how close to turbines they live and work, the size of the wind farm, and who built it. The interactive mab belows identifies the locations of the largest wind farms in Iowa.
From the outside, it looks like turbines are popping up in the middle of nowhere. But for those living in the country, the turbines loom over their properties, replacing their bucolic homes with an industrial energy landscape. And fields are their workplaces. A turbine doesn't affect just the few acres surrounding it: It has an impact on the entire farm it sits on, as well as neighboring farms.
Iowa is a state with abundant natural resources. Its rich soil has made the State a leader in agriculture and ethanol production, and Iowa has also been a high producer of natural gas for several decades. Energy production through wind power is relatively new for Iowa, and it has met many forms of controvery. Because of its topography and weather patterns, its likely that wind power will continue to influence the state. By 2020, the State is expected to add an addtional 58 megawatts of wind capacity and add an additonal 17,000 jobs. Considering the loss of jobs and poor economic conditions that greatly impacted the Iowa in the 1980's and 1990s, wind energy has become a welcome industry for many Iowans. However, it has also created a lot of controvery because of how wind energy production impacts local farms. Hopefully the benefits of wind energy production outweigh the costs of the industry on the State. As we find new ways to produce energy, will the landscape of Iowa become fields of dilapidated wind turbines that become reminders of a failed industry like smokestacks across the industrial midwest. Or, will wind energy continue to grow and allow to continue to lead in natural resources.