About the Project

Why We Need Wind When the Tourist Season is Over

Through sustaining the local economy outside of the busy tourist season and supporting local jobs that will help keep families close to home, the Red Rock Wind project presents many positive opportunities for the local community to thrive.

Keeping Jobs Close to Home

Projects like Red Rock Wind aim to support Iowa residents by creating local jobs and allowing Iowans to stay close to home, and to their families. Students, graduates, and professors at Iowa Lakes Community College were all looking for the same thing: jobs that kept them close to where they grew up in rural Iowa. When otherwise faced with limited employment opportunities, they were able to join an industry that has spurred local job growth across Iowa communities.

Why Iowa?

Iowa is a national leader in wind energy generation. While Iowa ranks 2nd in the nation for installed capacity to date, wind makes up over 60% of the electricity generated in the state. However, Iowa produces more electricity from wind than any other source and electricity bills have remained well below the national average due to this abundance of wind energy.

Click here to see the full American Clean Power Iowa Fact Sheet

Environmental
Benefits

Environmental Benefits

To avoid and minimize impacts to wildlife and other natural resources, we work with state and federal agencies along with other interested stakeholders to site, build, and operate our facilities responsibly. The cornerstone of that effort is our commitment to act in accordance with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Land-based Wind Energy Guidelines, which include robust pre-construction wildlife and habitat surveys, early and often communication with wildlife agencies, and operational monitoring to ensure risk to wildlife is minimized.

Land and County Roads

Invenergy will work with each county to establish a road and land use agreements for the Red Rock Wind Energy Center, ensuring all county roads and infrastructure will be well-maintained during construction and left in the same or better condition than they were prior to their use for construction or ongoing maintenance of the project.

Why Clay, Emmet, and Dickinson Counties

Invenergy develops projects where there is a strong resource, interested customers, and most importantly, landowners who want to participate in the project. We are committed to our home communities and look forward to continuing to work closely with Clay, Emmet, and Dickinson Counties, contributing to the region's economic development, and providing clean, homegrown energy to Iowa.

Above: The Red Rock Team, project founding landowners, Iowa Lakes and Spirit Lakes Chambers of Commerce, and local community members came together to celebrate the new local office opening and ribbon cutting!

The Red Rock team in Clay County last summer.

Red Rock Wind | A Grassroots Origin Story