Iowa’s top scientists focus solar power in 2023 climate report - WOWT

Iowa’s top scientists focus solar power in 2023 climate report

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Mid-October means midterms for many college students, so it’s a busy time for professors, too.

But 221 science faculty from 36 colleges and universities from across Iowa stepped away from grading papers to present the 13th annual Iowa Climate Statement this week, and it’s focused on the sun.

“Iowa has made huge strides in this effort in becoming the nation’s leader in per capita wind production, which in turn has been a boon to our economy in terms of production jobs, income for farmers, and low electricity rates, but at the same time, we lagged far behind many of our neighbors in terms of solar infrastructure which has similar benefits and can play a critical complementary role with the wind in Iowa,” Drake University’s Dave Courard-Hauri said. “Given that, the focus of this year’s statement is building statewide regulation in terms of, citing, permits, and so on so that to simplify that process.”

Solar energy is where it’s at, or should be, according to the statement.

Earlier this year Iowa Senate Bill 1077, which would have limited commercial solar panel construction, failed.

But the authors said wind was a tough sell, too, until Iowans saw the benefits, financially and ecologically.

According to the U.S. Energy Administration, nearly two-thirds of Iowa’s total net-generated electricity in 2022 came from renewable resources, almost all wind.

So with Iowa’s existing leadership role in harnessing one renewable, the climate statement authors say solar is the perfect complement.

“I think solar is going to take off fast,” Iowa State University’s Gene Takle said. “The fact that we’ve already gone through this with wind, means we already have some experience in how this works.”

“Solar’s highly effective from a land use perspective,” University of Iowa’s Peter Thorne said. “In our statement, we state that a one-acre solar farm produces as much energy as approximately 100 acres of ethanol from corn, so solar could produce as much energy in Iowa as the wind does today, leading Iowa to close in on that 100% renewables benchmark.”

The state’s largest existing solar facility went online in 2022 and covers 700 acres in Webster County.

The 100-megawatt Holliday Creek solar farm northwest of Des Moines generates enough electricity for roughly 19,000 Iowa homes.

“The energy is all around us. and so the question is just how do we transform that into usable energy?” Courard-Hauri said. “There’s really no floor, it’s just a question of technological development, and so as technology continues to improve, solar will only get cheaper, going forward.”

“The research and the acceptance in the industry to produce more will kick up because... dollars matter, and if it’s cheap, it’s cheap,” Iowa State University’s Ulrike Passe said. “That’s why wind is so prominent in Iowa, also.”

“I expect to see a build-out of solar complementary to wind,” Thorne said. “I think we’ll see a huge improvement in grid technology so that we’ll have much-expanded grids and an integrated, electrical system across the country.”

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