Estimated $21 million in property tax revenue
MidAmerican Energy Company officials that during the 2017 growing season, they’re growing wind turbines in eastern Greene County. The Beaver Creek Windpark will include 85 wind turbines, nearly evenly split between Greene and Boone Counties. The project has already been approved by the Iowa Utilities Board.
Revenue to Greene County in the form of property taxes is an estimated $21 million over the 40 year life of the project.
Beaver Creek Windpark is planned to be north of Highway 30 in Junction and possibly Paton Townships. According to Brady Evans, project developer/resource development for MidAmerican Energy, letters have been sent to property owners of proposed sites. MidAmerican over the next several months will work with landowners to obtain easements, continue pre-construction environmental studies and finalize plans with a goal of beginning construction activities sometime during the second quarter of 2017.
The schedule calls for the project to be operational by the end of 2017. The project will have a total capacity of 170MW, with 85 Vestas 2MG turbines.
The turbines will be 95 meters tall, 5 meters shorter than the 20 turbines of the Rippey Wind Farm, and 15 meters taller than the 12 turbines in the Junction Hilltop and Hardin Hilltop Wind Farms.
The project will bring about 150 temporary jobs to the two counties during construction. Once it is operational, there will be 7-10 permanent employees working out of an operations and maintenance building at a site not yet determined.
In announcing the project to the Greene County Development Corporation board earlier this week, GCDC executive director Ken Paxton said there’s potential for another 70-80 MidAmerican turbines in the future. A MidAmerican representative will speak at the GCDC annual meeting Sept. 14, Paxton said.
