GE 18 MW Turbine, Nordex Revives Iowa Facility

Nordex USA has reopened its wind turbine plant in Iowa, while Alliant Energy plans to add up to one gigawatt of wind generation in the state. GE Vernova’s 18 megawatt turbine has been approved for testing and the UK has greenlit the 1.5 gigawatt Mona Offshore Wind Farm.

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Good news for Iowa’s clean energy sector.

Nordex USA celebrated the reopening of its wind turbine plant in West Branch, Iowa on Tuesday. The plant now employs more than one hundred workers. They’re producing the company’s first U.S.-made turbines.

Manav Sharma is Nordex’s North American C.E.O. He says the company is committed to Iowa for the long term.

The plant had been closed since twenty thirteen. Nordex bought the facility in twenty sixteen and spent months retrofitting it. The plant will produce parts for five-megawatt turbines. Production capacity is planned to exceed two point five gigawatts annually.

The reopening comes despite federal debates about renewable energy tax credits.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds noted that sixty six percent of Iowa’s power comes from renewable energy. That’s the highest percentage in the US.

Alliant Energy also has big plans for wind power in Iowa.

The company filed a plan with the Iowa Utilities Commission to add up to one gigwatt of wind generation.

Mayuri Farlinger is president of Alliant’s Iowa energy company. She says expanding wind energy will help them deliver reliable and cost-effective power to customers.

Alliant plans to own and operate the new wind projects. The company expects the projects to create construction jobs and provide payments to landowners. They’ll also generate new tax revenue for counties where the turbines are built.

The Iowa Utilities Commission is expected to make a decision in the first quarter of twenty twenty six.

Norway is testing the one of world’s biggest wind turbine.

Norwegian regulator N.V.E. approved GE Vernova subsidiary Georgine Wind plans for an eighteen-megawatt turbine in the municipality of Gulen.

NVE says this is the largest wind turbine ever approved in Norway. It’s also the first to be licensed inside an existing industrial area.

The turbine will have a rotor diameter of up to two hundred fifty meters. The maximum tip height will be two hundred seventy five meters.

The turbine will undergo testing for five years before switching to standard commercial operation for another twenty five years.

The United Kingdom has approved its largest Irish Sea wind farm.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband granted planning consent for the Mona offshore wind farm. The project is owned by B.P. and EnBW. It will feature ninety six turbines off northwest England.

The one point five gigawatt project could power more than one million homes with clean energy. It’s expected to begin production between twenty twenty eight and twenty twenty nine.

Miliband says this shows the government is backing builders, not blockers.

B.P. and EnBW are also waiting for approval of a neighboring wind farm called Morgan. That decision is due by September tenth.

The developers have been paying option fees of one hundred fifty four thousand pounds per megawatt per year since January twenty twenty three.

Richard Sandford is B.P.’s Vice President of Offshore Wind. He says this approval brings them closer to delivering large-scale, low-carbon energy critical to the U.K.’s net zero goals.

That’s this week’s top news story.

Join us tomorrow for the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.