MidAmerican hits 100% renewable energy goal, but it comes with asterisk - Des Moines Register

MidAmerican hits renewable energy goal in effort to fight climate change

MidAmerican hits 100% renewable energy. But Iowa needs more solar to hit benchmark, scientists say.
Donnelle Eller

As Iowa scientists call for more renewable energy to battle climate change, the state’s largest utility says it has hit a new milestone for the amount of wind and solar energy it generated last year.

MidAmerican Energy on Tuesday said it produced about 27,030 gigawatt hours of renewable energy in 2022, enough to match its customers’ total energy use for the year in Iowa: 27,024 gigawatt hours.

Still, the Des Moines utility acknowledges it also tapped coal, nuclear energy and natural gas to meet the state’s electric needs last year when wind and solar energy wasn’t available.

Kerri Johannsen, the Iowa Environmental Council’s energy program director, said the company needs to address the shortfall.

“There’s a gap between the 100% renewable measurement … and reality,” Johannsen said. “We want the reality to match the marketing.”

A group of Iowa scientists said Tuesday the state could shrink that gap with a large investment in solar energy. The infusion is needed to battle climate change, which is contributing to widespread drought and record high temperatures in Iowa, according to the Iowa Climate Statement, signed by 221 scientists.

“Solar could produce as much energy in Iowa as wind does today, closing in on that 100% renewables benchmark,” Peter Thorne, a University of Iowa occupational and environmental health professor, said in a call with reporters.

At 58%, Iowa leads the nation in the percentage of electricity it gets from wind, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency.

In a hearing Tuesday with the Iowa Utilities Board in Des Moines, MidAmerican, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, began to outline why it wants to pump $4 billion into building more wind and solar energy generation.

Here's what to know about the push for solar.

More: Iowa residents contend solar, wind projects get in the way of their communities' growth

Is climate change really an issue in Iowa?

Iowa has experienced $64 billion in climate disasters over the last 40 years, according to Gene Takle, an Iowa State University professor emeritus in agronomy who joined the scientists signing the climate statement.

“Fifty of these (disasters) have been in the last 20 years, created mostly by flooding, drought and storms such as the 2020 derecho,” Takle told reporters.

At up to 140 mph, the derecho ripped through crops, homes and businesses, causing an estimated $11 billion in damages.

Takle said mounting evidence shows a warmer climate, driving increased storm frequency and intensity, is “a major contributing cause to the rise in damage.”

Isn't Iowa too cold to produce much solar energy?

The scientists said Minnesota, Iowa's neighbor to the north, produced nearly 10 times as much solar energy as Iowa in 2022. With solar generation "well under 1%," Iowa has about one-tenth the national average.

How much land for solar would be needed in Iowa?

Thorne said solar is an effective use of land. For example, “a 1-acre solar farm produces as much energy as approximately 100 acres of corn” grown for ethanol, he said.

Iowa would need about 152,000 acres of solar arrays to match the state’s wind energy, the report shows. For comparison, that’s equivalent to about 37% of the land used for Iowa’s rural roads, the report says.

Does the group anticipate corn acres will shift to solar acres?

Thorne said land-use change is possible in Iowa, but it would most likely be driven by a U.S. shift to electric vehicles to cut greenhouse gas emissions. That would likely cut demand for corn-derived ethanol and increase demand for renewable energy.

The impact in Iowa, the nation's largest producer of ethanol, could be significant. Farmers in the state grow corn on 13.4 million acres, and half of it goes to ethanol production. By comparison, the “the acres needed for solar are so small,” Thorne said.

What’s renewable energy doing for customers?

MidAmerican said record-setting winds last year boosted renewable energy output at a time when "wholesale electricity market prices were higher due to high natural gas prices."

“Not only did strong wind generation bring costs down for MidAmerican customers this summer, but it also reduces the need for future rate increases,” MidAmerican said.

“It couldn’t have come at a better time for our customers,” Mike Fehr, a MidAmerican senior vice president, said in a statement.

What other kind of fuel did MidAmerican use to generate electricity in Iowa last year?

MidAmerican used wind to produce 64.3% of the electricity that Iowans used in 2022; coal for 21.6%; nuclear, 7.9%; and natural gas, 3.5%, the company reported in its annual fuel-usage report. Other sources made up 2.5%.

MidAmerican, which began investing in wind in 2004, now has 3,400 turbines at about three dozen wind farms across Iowa.

What’s in MidAmerican’s WindPrime proposal?

MidAmerican proposes building 2,042 megawatts of wind and 50 megawatts of solar generation, with a goal of retiring its five coal-fired plants by 2050. MidAmerican says the renewable energy expansion will come at no additional cost to consumers.

Johannsen said adding even more solar energy will help complement MidAmerican’s large wind generation capacity. Iowa scientists agreed.

“In Iowa, wind speeds tend to be high in the winter and spring when solar energy is less available, and lowest in the late summer when solar radiance is plentiful,” the group said.

Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the environment and energy for the Register. Reach her at deller@registermedia.com or 515-284-8457.