12/04/2017

MidAmerican places 70 MW order in the U.S.

MidAmerican Energy Company, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy and the largest regulated utility owner of wind energy in the U.S, has placed an order for 70 MW of V110-2.0 MW turbines towards the 2,000 MW Wind XI project in Iowa.

Image: Vestas

The turbines will be manufactured at Vestas’ four Colorado factories with expected delivery in the second quarter of 2018 and includes previously purchased Production Tax Credit (PTC) qualifying components.

When fully operational in 2020, alongside other projects, the Wind XI project will help MidAmerican Energy generate an estimated 95 percent of its annual retail energy load from wind. The Wind XI project consists of multiple sites in Iowa that will be placed into service between 2017 and 2019.

“We are pleased to continue working with MidAmerican Energy on this next phase of the Wind XI project. The production, construction and operations of the turbines for Wind XI will generate significant economic benefits for landowners, their community and the supply chain that supports these American-made turbines,” said Chris Brown, President of Vestas’ sales and service division in the United States and Canada.

In 2015, Congress passed the bipartisan PATH act, which set the terms for the permanent phasedown of the PTC – making the wind industry the first energy industry in the U.S. to agree to the permanent ending of tax subsidies.

The policy stability of the long-term phasedown has resulted in nearly $50 billion of investment in the U.S. including the expansion of factories, millions of dollars in technology innovation investment and the addition of tens of thousands of jobs across the wind value chain. In 2016, the wind industry added jobs 9x faster than the overall U.S. economy, and today there are more than 102,000 wind workers.

The order includes supply and commissioning of the wind turbines as well as a multi-year Active Output Management 5000 (AOM5000) service agreement.

Potential future order intake under overall agreement linked to the Wind XI project is expected to occur as partial deliveries under the master agreement and will be announced firm and unconditional consistent with Vestas’ order announcement policy. The announcement references company announcement No. 22/2016 of 17 June 2016