Two utilities continue Midwest wind buildout

摘要

Two Midwest utilities last week bolstered their wind farm portfolios with acquisitions totaling 600 MW from developer Apex Clean Energy. In a deal announced Friday, Alliant Energy’s utility subsidiary bought the development rights to a 300-MW project in Iowa, which followed on the heels of Xcel Energy’s utility Northern States Power announcing the purchase of a 300-MW wind farm in South Dakota. Apex, based in Charlottesville, Virginia, had been in discussions for more than a year with Alliant about selling the development rights to the Upland Prairie project that is to be in the northwest Iowa counties of Clay and Dickinson. The cost estimates for the project have been put at $500 million.