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NEWS > CURRENT NEWS
MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company Adds to its Renewable Energy Portfolio
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New Wind Generation at PacifiCorp and MidAmerican Energy Company
For more information, contact:
Allan Urlis, Director of Media Relations, at 515-281-2785
Jan Mitchell, Director of External Communications, at 503-813-7281
DES MOINES, Iowa – (July 28, 2006) – This week, MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company subsidiaries PacifiCorp and MidAmerican Energy Company announced a total of 223.5 megawatts of new wind energy generation, which increases the company’s renewable energy portfolio to more than 15 percent of its total electric generating capacity.
MidAmerican Energy Company announced a 123-megawatt wind project in northwest Iowa and PacifiCorp announced it has purchased and will own Leaning Juniper 1, a 100.5-megawatt wind project in the Columbia Gorge region of north central Oregon.
“MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company business platforms have long histories of commitment to their customers and the environment,” said Greg Abel, president of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company. “These new projects are indicative of our company’s leadership in developing renewable energy in the United States and abroad.”
MidAmerican Energy Company is No. 1 in the nation in ownership of wind-powered electric generation among rate-regulated utilities and has 695.5 megawatts of wind energy facilities in operation, under construction and under contract in Iowa. In addition, MidAmerican obtains 17 megawatts of electricity from generating plants using hydroelectric, biomass and methane as fuel.
PacifiCorp’s purchase of the 100.5-megawatt Leaning Juniper 1 wind project is part of its commitment to have 400 megawatts of cost-effective new renewable resources in PacifiCorp’s generation portfolio by the end of 2007. Also, PacifiCorp has committed to acquire an additional 1,000 megawatts of cost-effective renewable energy to serve its customers’ electricity needs by 2015.
In total, PacifiCorp owns, purchases or has under contract 1,704 megawatts of electricity from renewable sources: 1,167 megawatts from hydroelectric; 457 megawatts from wind; 29 megawatts from geothermal; and the remainder, 51 megawatts, from solar, biomass and biogas.
MidAmerican subsidiaries also own and operate 10 geothermal energy plants in California and two in the Philippines, producing a combined capacity of nearly 700 megawatts of electricity from naturally occurring geothermal heat. The company owns and operates the Casecnan Multipurpose Irrigation and Power project in the Philippines, which generates 150 megawatts of hydroelectric power. The company also has a 50 percent interest in the 10-megawatt Wailuku hydroelectric facility in Hawaii.
More than 3,000 megawatts of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company’s energy capability, approximately 15 percent, currently comes from green energy sources.
“Renewable energy sources are an important and growing part of MidAmerican’s generation portfolio,” Abel said. “We are committed to developing long-term energy solutions that protect both our customers and our planet.”
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