Southern Hills Wind Farm

🌬 WindElectric Utility254 MW capacity

25th largest plant in Iowa · 1202nd nationally

Southern Hills Wind Farm is a wind power plant in Iowa with a nameplate capacity of 254 MW. It generates roughly 760.9k MWh per year — enough to power about 72,466 average U.S. homes.

Its capacity factor of 34% reflects intermittent or peaking operation.

PeakingMid-meritBaseload0%40%80%100%34%
Peaking — intermittent or backup
Capacity254 MWnameplate
Annual Generation760.9k MWhEPA eGRID
Capacity Factor34%of theoretical max
Annual CO₂metric tons

Location

Plant NameSouthern Hills Wind Farm
OperatorMidamerican Energy Co
CityCreston
CountyUnion County
StateIowa
ZIP50801
Coordinates41.11130, -94.46670

This plant highlighted in navy-ringed pin; other generators within 25 miles shown as fuel-colored dots.

Natural GasOilWindSolar

Generators (1)

IDTechnologyFuelCapacityStatusOnline
SHWFOnshore Wind TurbineWind254 MWOperating2021

Grid context

NERC RegionMRO
Balancing AuthorityMidcontinent Independent Transmission System Operator, Inc..

About Wind plants

Wind farms harvest kinetic energy from moving air using large rotor blades coupled to generators. Like solar, they produce zero emissions but vary with weather. Onshore wind capacity factors typically run 30–45%; offshore can exceed 50%.

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