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Meanwhile in Iowa, Mid American Energy is well on their way to 100% renewal by 2021 with an endless array of wind farms. Their final phase of the project start

Meanwhile in Iowa, Mid American Energy is well on their way to 100% renewal by 2021 with an endless array of wind farms. Their final phase of the project started in 2018 with a $922M investment. Iowa Public Radio toured one of the windmills back in January. https://www.iowapublicradio.org/post/skyscrapers-fields-wind-energy-continues-expand-iowa#stream/0 https://www.iowapublicradio.org/post/skyscrapers-fields-wind...

kortilla 7y ago
What is the base load supply?
gameswithgo 7y ago
Do they have plans for energy storage?
- AdamTReineke 7y ago
  Currently piloting. "Our pilot project 1-megawatt battery storage facility, announced in November 2018, is now operational in Knoxville, Iowa. It provides 4-megawatt-hours of storage capacity, or enough electricity to power nearly 900 average Iowa homes for up to four hours." https://www.midamericanenergy.com/battery-storage https://www.midamericanenergy.com/battery-storage
- deleted 7y ago
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deleted 7y ago
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colechristensen 7y ago
I wonder how people would feel about ethanol plants fired by wind farms. The one built near my family home is coal fired and the idea of growing crops to be turned into car fuel is ... less appealing. But if you had electric or ethanol powered tractors growing biomass to ferment and distill into more ethanol with a plant fired with wind, maybe there are some different environmental considerations there. For one it would be carbon negative or neutral if you considered that the fuel is all going to be returned to the atmosphere.
- nanomonkey 7y ago
  Ideally the ethanol should be distilled using solar thermal collectors like evacuated tubes or parabolic troughs. There are also semi-permeable membranes that only allows alcohol though (fairly new tech).
- basicplus2 7y ago
  Ethanol is highly corrosive, damages engines and fuel lines, is hydroscopic which exacerbates above and more problems, has even short term storage problems let alone long term, thats why its only ever used blended and is very toxic, in fact it is a nightmare fuel really.. bio diesel on the other hand has none of these problems. https://www.government-fleet.com/157454/storing-dispensing-using-ethanol-gasoline-blends https://www.government-fleet.com/157454/storing-dispensing-u... https://www.cfact.org/2014/07/21/killing-marine-life-with-ethanol/ https://www.cfact.org/2014/07/21/killing-marine-life-with-et...
  - kragen 7y ago
    Almost everything you said is precisely opposite from the truth. Ethanol is less corrosive to metals than even pure water, although (like gasoline) there are some plastics that it can dissolve; some of these plastics were used decades ago in some cars, including in their fuel systems, when blending ethanol with gasoline was uncommon. Its hygroscopic (not "hydroscopic") nature is a reason that people have been adding it to their gas tanks for many decades, to safely get the water out ("HEET" is a common brand name in the US), although it's true that each teaspoon of ethanol can only dissolve a small amount of water before becoming immiscible with gasoline. It's very chemically stable, unlike gasoline, which can polymerize into "varnish," and it's easier and safer to store than gasoline, although it does need to be stored without access to too much air so it doesn't absorb water. It's so nontoxic that people drink it recreationally, which is a major industry in most countries, although this doesn't seem appealing to me. And, unlike gasoline, diesel fuel, or biodiesel, you can put out ethanol files with water. These are some of the reasons it's been used as a fuel alone, as well as blended, for centuries, and many cars in countries like Brazil are able to run on pure ethanol, despite its lower energy density.
- 7y ago

kortilla 7y ago

What is the base load supply?

gameswithgo 7y ago

Do they have plans for energy storage?

AdamTReineke 7y ago
Currently piloting. "Our pilot project 1-megawatt battery storage facility, announced in November 2018, is now operational in Knoxville, Iowa. It provides 4-megawatt-hours of storage capacity, or enough electricity to power nearly 900 average Iowa homes for up to four hours." https://www.midamericanenergy.com/battery-storage https://www.midamericanenergy.com/battery-storage
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colechristensen 7y ago

I wonder how people would feel about ethanol plants fired by wind farms. The one built near my family home is coal fired and the idea of growing crops to be turned into car fuel is ... less appealing. But if you had electric or ethanol powered tractors growing biomass to ferment and distill into more ethanol with a plant fired with wind, maybe there are some different environmental considerations there. For one it would be carbon negative or neutral if you considered that the fuel is all going to be returned to the atmosphere.

nanomonkey 7y ago
Ideally the ethanol should be distilled using solar thermal collectors like evacuated tubes or parabolic troughs. There are also semi-permeable membranes that only allows alcohol though (fairly new tech).
basicplus2 7y ago
Ethanol is highly corrosive, damages engines and fuel lines, is hydroscopic which exacerbates above and more problems, has even short term storage problems let alone long term, thats why its only ever used blended and is very toxic, in fact it is a nightmare fuel really.. bio diesel on the other hand has none of these problems. https://www.government-fleet.com/157454/storing-dispensing-using-ethanol-gasoline-blends https://www.government-fleet.com/157454/storing-dispensing-u... https://www.cfact.org/2014/07/21/killing-marine-life-with-ethanol/ https://www.cfact.org/2014/07/21/killing-marine-life-with-et...
- kragen 7y ago
  Almost everything you said is precisely opposite from the truth. Ethanol is less corrosive to metals than even pure water, although (like gasoline) there are some plastics that it can dissolve; some of these plastics were used decades ago in some cars, including in their fuel systems, when blending ethanol with gasoline was uncommon. Its hygroscopic (not "hydroscopic") nature is a reason that people have been adding it to their gas tanks for many decades, to safely get the water out ("HEET" is a common brand name in the US), although it's true that each teaspoon of ethanol can only dissolve a small amount of water before becoming immiscible with gasoline. It's very chemically stable, unlike gasoline, which can polymerize into "varnish," and it's easier and safer to store than gasoline, although it does need to be stored without access to too much air so it doesn't absorb water. It's so nontoxic that people drink it recreationally, which is a major industry in most countries, although this doesn't seem appealing to me. And, unlike gasoline, diesel fuel, or biodiesel, you can put out ethanol files with water. These are some of the reasons it's been used as a fuel alone, as well as blended, for centuries, and many cars in countries like Brazil are able to run on pure ethanol, despite its lower energy density.
7y ago