The Iowa Stored Energy Park (ISEP) is a power supply project, being developed by over 100 municipal utilities across four states. The idea is similar to current methods being used to store natural gas underground in many locations around the world.

The Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) project uses wind generated energy to compresses air and store it underground in a natural geological formation for later use in making electricity. When wind energy wanes, the stored air is released, mixed with fuel and used to power combustion turbines to produce electricity.

Ok. So it may not be totally clean and green but it helps to make wind energy more reliably consistent. And, this process uses less fuel than a conventional combustion-turbine facility and will utilize some of the latest innovations in electricity generation.

When current testing is completed, the project will move into design, procurement and construction. Planners expect that this resource will be available to utilities and their customers in 2011. There are currently two other CAES wind energy storage locations in the world, a 110 MW facility in Alabama and a 290 MW facility in Germany.

But where does the grassroots organizing come in?

Well, you’d think that Iowa now being #4 in the country in wind energy generation would be totally focused on GREEN power. Not so.

“Iowa gets nearly 90 percent of electricity from coal, despite vast wind, sun and biomass potential.” states the Iowa Public Interest Research Group.  Iowa Public TV’s “Wind Energy In Iowa” (#153) show on The Iowa Journal had interviews with Iowa wind activists/engineers Ed Woolsey and Tom Wind.

Both pointed to a disappointing Iowa legislative session this year where it was nearly impossible to generate interest among state legislators in anything other than coal. Woolsey and Wind noted the importance of grassroots organizing for bringing renewable energy projects to the front of legislators’ interests. The large corporations have more money and power to get legislative attention. There needs to be a swelling movement at the grassroots level to get the attention needed to make policy changes. And, that’s where our Seventeen Steps to Success come in.  More on the “Power Struggle in Iowa“ later.  

If you meet this argument you are not without counter argument data. As interest in wind-generated electricity increases, electric utilities must grapple with the challenge of connecting wind energy to the power grid while maintaining system reliability. Wind is a renewable, cost-free, utility scale resource, but its interconnection with transmission grids is unique.

Some countries have adopted specific interconnection standards for large wind farm projects. And, some utilities have wind farm related requirements for a dynamic stand-by system to compensate for dropping wind power if that should be a problem. To meet this requirement, many wind farms today are employing innovative systems that regulate grid voltages and provide dynamic reactive power support. Take a look here for information to help you debate this issue.