Iowa Farmer Today | Tim Kenyon, March 22, 2025
Solar and wind energy advocates contend that growth potential is practically endless.
The United States installed a record-breaking 50 gigawatts of new solar capacity in 2024, the largest year of new capacity added to the grid in over two decades, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.
Wind and solar projects helped a resurgence for Midwest farmers following the farm crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s, said Waylon Brown, a regional policy manager at Clean Grid Alliance based in St. Paul, Minnesota.
“It was a huge boost. They were vital additional revenue sources,” Brown said. “It helped a lot of family farms. In fact, that’s what helped our family farm, and in turn for my brother and myself to continue farming.”
Brown, a fourth-generation farmer, lives in Osage, Iowa, with his wife, Julie, and their twins, Reece and Elyse. Brown spent seven years serving in the state senate where he led the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees energy policy.
That experience ties into his collaboration with leadership in state legislative and executive branches, utility commissions, trade associations, regional grid operators and CGA members. Brown said moving policies forward to increase home-grown energy, strengthen the economy and support Midwest rural communities are his top priorities since joining CGA last July.
CGA advocates for legislative action and regulatory reforms about delivery of clean energy in the nine Upper Midwest states — Iowa, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Indiana.
“There’s a constant need for continuing to educate,” Brown said.
CGA’s main tool is promoting accurate data about wind and solar energy, he said.
“We focus on identifying areas of concerns. … We dispel a lot of misinformation that’s out there,” he said.
Major concerns for alternative energy projects include the influence on property taxes, land value, property setbacks and sound levels.
“Most of the time you just want to know as much as possible to make the best decisions,” Brown said.
Today, Midwesterners benefit from more reliable energy sources and some of the cheapest electricity in the country, he said.
Brown attributed that to having a mix of energy sources to tap.
In 2023, 64% of Iowa’s energy generation came from wind and solar, while the percentage of fossil fuel generation decreased 6% from 2021, according to an Iowa Electric Generation Council’s 2024 report.
Alternately, the tax revenue from renewable energy projects can be viewed as funding government public services, he said.
Lee Tesdell is a long-time alternative energy supporter. Tesdell owns and manages his family’s Century Farm near Slater in Polk County, Iowa.
His great-grandfather bought the family farm in 1884. The farm features 80 acres of corn and soybeans, alfalfa, hay and streamside buffer strips.
Tesdell, an Iowa Farmers Union member, also said he raises energy.
“I’ve been farming the sun for over 10 years,” he said.
That first farm solar project featured a six-panel array installation, Tesdell said.
He appreciated that the project recouped nearly half of its cost from incentives. He received 30% in federal tax credit incentives and earned another 15% from Iowa.
“In the country, we have the luxury of more real estate to use. It makes (solar array) maintenance much easier,” Tesdell said.
The extra space on a farm also makes it more practical to use ground concrete mounts for solar arrays.
“Again, maintenance is much easier to keep up,” he added.
Tesdell also wanted to consider wind energy as an electrical source for his farm, but a consulting engineer told him space was too tight.
Alternative energy project plans occasionally stir up opposition from nearby rural homeowners and farm operators.
One example is a plan by MidAmerican Energy to build a large wind farm in southwest Iowa which has drawn opposition from nearby property owners.
MidAmerican seeks to build a 400-megawatt capacity wind farm capable of providing power to about 144,000 Iowa homes.
The project, dubbed the Silver Creek Wind Farm, would see between 90 to 140 wind turbines installed in northern Mills and southern Pottawattamie counties.
But opponents in the township of Silver Creek and nearby Treynor have been vocal since the proposal was announced. A Facebook group called the Silver Creek Community Preservation Initiative formed and attended public hearings and gained greater attention with its website nowindfarmhere.com.
The group’s concerns led to the Pottawattamie County supervisors approval of an alternative energy project moratorium in November 2023.
In February 2024, the supervisors went further when they adopted a new alternative energy ordinance addressing neighbor proximity concerns, requiring shadow flicker limitation of 30 hours annually, sound to nearby landowners’ dwellings not to exceed 40 decibels and conditional use permit requirements.
The proposed wind farm remains under MidAmerican Energy’s consideration, spokesman Geoff Greenwood said March 14. The company reviewed pertinent changes and noticed a shift in boundaries after the county ordinance passed, he said.
“We are currently waiting for Montgomery County to finalize its draft zoning ordinance. The final ordinance language will help determine whether we are able to move forward with this project,” Greenwood said.
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