The largest wind farm in U.S. history was just given the green light,reports Business Insider.
Wind XI is the $3.6 billion project in Iowa that will include 1,000 turbines. The operation is expected to be completed in 2019. Upon completion the wind farm will generate up to 2,000 megawatts of electricity. That’s enough to power roughly 800,000 Iowa homes.
The effort is a project of an energy company called MidAmerican Energy. The group has a vision of one day powering Iowa on 100% renewable energy, and this new project is a big step in that direction. Since the 1980s the cost of deploying wind energy has dropped by 90 percent, according to the US Department of Energy.
Fossil fuel energy currently produces 90% of greenhouse gas emissions in the US, but wind turbines produce no air pollution.