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GE 18 MW Turbine, Nordex Revives Iowa Facility
Nordex USA has reopened its wind turbine plant in Iowa, while Alliant Energy plans to add up to one gigawatt of wind generation in the state. GE Vernova’s 18 megawatt turbine has been approved for testing and the UK has greenlit the 1.5 gigawatt Mona Offshore Wind Farm.
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Good news for Iowa’s clean energy sector.
Nordex USA celebrated the reopening of its wind turbine plant in West Branch, Iowa on Tuesday. The plant now employs more than one hundred workers. They’re producing the company’s first U.S.-made turbines.
Manav Sharma is Nordex’s North American C.E.O. He says the company is committed to Iowa for the long term.
The plant had been closed since twenty thirteen. Nordex bought the facility in twenty sixteen and spent months retrofitting it. The plant will produce parts for five-megawatt turbines. Production capacity is planned to exceed two point five gigawatts annually.
The reopening comes despite federal debates about renewable energy tax credits.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds noted that sixty six percent of Iowa’s power comes from renewable energy. That’s the highest percentage in the US.
Alliant Energy also has big plans for wind power in Iowa.
The company filed a plan with the Iowa Utilities Commission to add up to one gigwatt of wind generation.
Mayuri Farlinger is president of Alliant’s Iowa energy company. She says expanding wind energy will help them deliver reliable and cost-effective power to customers.
Alliant plans to own and operate the new wind projects. The company expects the projects to create construction jobs and provide payments to landowners. They’ll also generate new tax revenue for counties where the turbines are built.
The Iowa Utilities Commission is expected to make a decision in the first quarter of twenty twenty six.
Norway is testing the one of world’s biggest wind turbine.
Norwegian regulator N.V.E. approved GE Vernova subsidiary Georgine Wind plans for an eighteen-megawatt turbine in the municipality of Gulen.
NVE says this is the largest wind turbine ever approved in Norway. It’s also the first to be licensed inside an existing industrial area.
The turbine will have a rotor diameter of up to two hundred fifty meters. The maximum tip height will be two hundred seventy five meters.
The turbine will undergo testing for five years before switching to standard commercial operation for another twenty five years.
The United Kingdom has approved its largest Irish Sea wind farm.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband granted planning consent for the Mona offshore wind farm. The project is owned by B.P. and EnBW. It will feature ninety six turbines off northwest England.
The one point five gigawatt project could power more than one million homes with clean energy. It’s expected to begin production between twenty twenty eight and twenty twenty nine.
Miliband says this shows the government is backing builders, not blockers.
B.P. and EnBW are also waiting for approval of a neighboring wind farm called Morgan. That decision is due by September tenth.
The developers have been paying option fees of one hundred fifty four thousand pounds per megawatt per year since January twenty twenty three.
Richard Sandford is B.P.’s Vice President of Offshore Wind. He says this approval brings them closer to delivering large-scale, low-carbon energy critical to the U.K.’s net zero goals.
That’s this week’s top news story.
Join us tomorrow for the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast.
https://weatherguardwind.com/ge-nordex-iowa/
No one seems to understand Trump’s motivation here. Did it have anything to do with the $400 million gift aircraft?
Does Qatar fear attack from Alberta or Saskatoon?
The Qataris say they need to be prepared to help achieve peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. I’m suspicious, though I’m no expert in military logistics. We’re talking about a 6000-mile plane ride.
What? I’m confused. “Trump’s Statement” of a few months was that “Gas prices are (present tense) under $2.”
It would have been interesting if one of the gaggle of reporters surrounding him could have asked the obvious question: “That’s great, sir, but can you name a single state in the union whose gas prices are under $2?
It would have been a tense moment, for sure, but don’t we have any self-respect?
Over the past few months, and especially since the murder of Charlie Kirk, the right-wing news sources are telling us that most of the politically related violence is coming from the left, in particular from the left-wing “terrorist associations,” e.g., Antifa.
If you look at some coverage on the subject, however, you’ll learn that this is simple false. Here’s a bit from a PBS piece:
PBS: Policymakers and the public need reliable evidence and actual data to understand the reality of politically motivated violence.
Craig: No, they don’t. Are you serious? Are we to believe that Donald Trump is sending federal troops to democratically-led cities based on “reliable evidence and actual data?” This is a sick joke.
PBS: From our research on extremism, it’s clear that the president’s and Miller’s assertions about political violence from the left are not based on actual facts.
Here’s more from the PBS article:
After the Sept. 10, 2025, assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, President Donald Trump claimed that radical leftist groups foment political violence in the U.S., and “they should be put in jail.”
“The radical left causes tremendous violence,” he said, asserting that “they seem to do it in a bigger way” than groups on the right.
WATCH: Extremism scholar analyzes influence of rhetoric on political violence
Top presidential adviser Stephen Miller also weighed in after Kirk’s killing, saying that left-wing political organizations constitute “a vast domestic terror movement.”
“We are going to use every resource we have … throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks and make America safe again,” Miller said.
Political violence rising
The understanding of political violence is complicated by differences in definitions and the recent Department of Justice removal of an important government-sponsored study of domestic terrorists.
Political violence in the U.S. has risen in recent months and takes forms that go unrecognized. During the 2024 election cycle, nearly half of all states reported threats against election workers, including social media death threats, intimidation and doxing.
WATCH: Trump conspiracies inspire threats against judges, jurors and election workers
Kirk’s assassination illustrates the growing threat. The man charged with the murder, Tyler Robinson, allegedly planned the attack in writing and online.
This follows other politically motivated killings, including the June assassination of Democratic Minnesota state Rep. and former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband.
These incidents reflect a normalization of political violence. Threats and violence are increasingly treated as acceptable for achieving political goals, posing serious risks to democracy and society.
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