MidAmerican utility officials have not announced specific locations for the next installation of wind turbines, but have indicated the sites would be in northwest Iowa and south of Interstate Highway 80 in western Iowa.

Gov. Terry Branstad announced Aug. 7, 2013 that MidAmerican Energy www.midamericanenergy.com will invest $1.9 billion in Iowa wind energy, what's purported to be the biggest single economic investment ever in the state. The energy company reportedly will install 448 wind turbines in five Iowa counties to generate 1,050 megawatts of power by 2015. Construction of the wind farms is scheduled to begin in September.

Branstad says the wind project will create about 460 construction jobs over two years, with an estimated payroll of $30 million, plus 48 permanent jobs with a payroll of $2.4 million. The economic impact for Iowa, the governor says, includes about $360 million in additional property tax revenue over the next 30 years, and payments of up to $3.2 million annually to farmers for the use of their land.

Since 2004, MidAmerican has installed 1,267 wind turbines in Iowa, a $4 billion investment, making the company the largest rate-regulated utility owner of wind generation in the U.S. with 2,285 megawatts of wind generation capacity. These turbines, combined with the new installation of 448, will give the utility 3,335 megawatts of wind generation capacity by the end of 2015.

MidAmerican Energy, headquartered in Des Moines, is Iowa's largest energy company, but also provides electric and natural gas services to customers in Illinois, Nebraska and South Dakota. By July 2016, the electric generation capability for the utility will be 39 percent wind, 33 percent coal, 18 percent natural gas, 6 percent nuclear and 4 percent hydroelectric.