Sep. 9--CEDAR RAPIDS -- Alliant Energy expects to begin generating electricity from its first company-owned wind farm this year in Franklin County, according to the company's annual environmental report.

The Whispering Willow-East Wind Farm will bring online the first 200 megawatts of a potential 500-megawatt wind development acquired by Alliant's Interstate Power & Light utility in 2007.

The farm will supply enough electricity to power about 50,000 homes per year, the report said.

Alliant has announced it will develop another 100 megawatts of wind energy at part of the site called Whispering Willow-West.

It has not said when it will bring that power online or when it will develop the remaining 200 megawatts of potential at the site.

In Minnesota, Alliant's Wisconsin Power & Light utility acquired development rights in March to 400 megawatts of wind capacity in Freeborn County.

The Wisconsin utility is also planning to purchase the Riverside Energy Center, a natural gas-fired power plant in Beloit, Wis., from a subsidiary of Calpine Corp., when an agreement to buy electricity from the plant from Calpine expires May 31, 2013.

The environmental report details emissions reduction plans at the company's Lansing Generating Station in Iowa and at its Edgewater Generating Station in Wisconsin.

Work on a clean air compliance program at Lansing began in May. Completion of a selective catalytic reduction system and bughouse filter at Lansing Unit 4 power plant are expected to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 90 percent and mercury emissions by 90 percent.

A new energy efficiency plan filed in April with Iowa regulators calls for the utility to spend about $400 million on natural gas and electricity efficiency programs over the next five years, and to conserve the electric and gas usage equivalent of more than 100,000 homes, the report said.

Alliant said it reported 65 hazardous material spills in 2008, most of them caused by equipment failures and leaks, vehicle accidents and equipment damage from high winds. Four regulatory notices of non-compliance were reported by subsidiaries of Alliant in 2008. One resulted in a $285,000 settlement of an enforcement action for failure to submit an air permit renewal application on time.

-- Contact the writer: (319) 398-8317 or david.dewitte@gazcomm.com

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