New Solar Project Will be Iowa's Largest

The Central Iowa Power Cooperative (CIPCO) today announced the launch of  the single largest solar PV project in Iowa to date. Totaling 5.5 megawatts (MW), the project will be spread across six sites in its service territory. Each site might be approximately 1 MW each.

Iowa ended 2015 with approximately 35 MW to 40 MW of installed solar, so the announcement of a 5.5 MW project is significant. Most of Iowa’s solar is currently distributed solar, meaning it is located on farms, homes and businesses. The utility-scale CIPCO project will help diversify Iowa’s solar installations, strengthening the state’s overall solar portfolio. Both distributed and utility-scale projects located across Iowa make sense and provide significant economic, community and environmental benefits. We welcome the CIPCO announcement and applaud them for announcing a project at this scale.

The original request for proposal (RFP) issued in late 2015 called for 3 MW of solar. However, interest in the project built over time and reached a level that eventually led to the announcement of a larger project. This interest and enthusiasm was mirrored in the development of a community solar project in Cedar Falls this past year undertaken by Cedar Falls Utilities (CFU). Originally proposed at 500 kW, CFU finalized plans for a project three times that size at 1.5 MW. This project has been built and will begin delivering energy to Cedar Falls later this spring.

The CIPCO and Cedar Falls solar projects – as well as other projects currently underway across the state – underscore the momentum and strong support in Iowa for both wind and solar energy.

Policies that expand, improve and maintain access to renewable energy and energy efficiency programs that maximize benefits – which the Council and its allies have and continues to work hard to advance – have helped drive this impressive growth.

A number of additional cooperative and municipal utilities are moving forward on solar projects using Iowa’s 476C production tax incentive, while customer-generators – farmers, businesses, and residential customers – continue to invest in on-site solar. Larger utility scale projects are also being explored, such as the EDF Renewables 200 MW wind project in Plymouth County and 100 MW solar project in Webster County.

We look forward to seeing many wind and solar projects advance  in 2016 as Iowa continues – and accelerates – a transition to clean energy.

Read CIPCO’s news release about the project.

1. clean energy
2. solar power
3. solar tax credits