The Intrepid Wind Farm consists of 107 wind turbines, located in Sac

Sac County, Iowa

-2010 census:The 2010 census recorded a population of 10,350 in the county, with a population density of . There were 5,429 housing units, of which 4,482 were occupied.-2000 census:...

 and Buena Vista

Buena Vista County, Iowa

-2010 census:The 2010 census recorded a population of 20,260 in the county, with a population density of . There were 8,237 housing units, of which 7,522 were occupied.-2000 census:...

 counties in north-west Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

, has a generating capacity of 160.5 megawatts of electricity, enough to supply some 43,000 homes. The wind power

Wind power

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....

 project is MidAmerican Energy Company

MidAmerican Energy Company

MidAmerican Energy Company is an energy company based in Des Moines, Iowa. Its service area includes almost two-thirds of Iowa, as well as portions of Illinois, South Dakota, and Nebraska. Its territory is wholly encompassed by the territory of the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator...

’s first owned and operated wind generation facility.

When MidAmerican Energy first began planning the Intrepid site, the company worked closely with several state and national environmental groups, with a view to minimizing the environmental impact. Using input from such diverse groups as the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the Nature Conservancy, Iowa State University

Iowa State University

Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...

, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, and the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club, MidAmerican created a statewide map of areas in the proposed region that contained specific bird populations or habitats. Those areas were then avoided when detailed site planning

Site planning

Site planning in landscape architecture and architecture refers to the organizational stage of the landscape design process. It involves the organization of land use zoning, access, circulation, privacy, security, shelter, land drainage, and other factors...

 occurred. MidAmerican also worked in conjunction with the Army Corp of Engineers, to secure all necessary permits related to any potential risk to wetland

Wetland

A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....

s in the area. Regular inspections are also conducted to make certain that the wind farm

Wind farm

A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electric power. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines, and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other...

 is causing no adverse environmental impact to the region.

See also

• Wind power in the United States
  Wind power in the United States
  As of the third quarter of 2011, the cumulative installed capacity of wind power in the United States was 43,461 megawatts , making it second in the world, behind China. In 2010 wind power accounted for 2.3% of the electricity generated in the United States...
  
  
• List of large wind farms