In 2009, if all goes as planned, a two-year construction project involving 300-400 workers will begin at a 40-acre site near Highway 44, just three miles west of Dallas Center.
When the project is completed in the summer of 2011, Dallas Center will be the home of the Iowa Stored Energy Park. Closest to the highway will be a nicely landscaped welcome center, and beyond it will be the stored energy plant.
3,000 feet below the site is the reason for the project's existence: a large porous rock formation which is geologically suitable for the storage of a huge volume of compressed air.

The function of the stored energy plant will be to use electricity received from a remote wind farm to power giant air compressors which will pump compressed air into the porous rock formation for storage, then release the stored compressed air to mix with natual gas and drive generators which will re-create the electricity on demand, for consumption.
This will not only add 268 megawatts of electricity to the approximately 992 megawatts already being wind-generated in Iowa, it will bring 20-40 permanent skilled jobs, and more traffic, to the Dallas Center area.
To learn more about the Iowa Stored Energy Park, visit these sites:
Iowa Stored Energy Park
WAPA Energy Services Bulletin
HowStuffWorks.com
RenewableEnergyWorld.com
Windaction.org News
Illustrations credit: Iowa Stored Energy Park



