(Radio Iowa) – MidAmerican Energy is pulling the plug on a wind farm it had proposed in northwest Iowa. Woodbury County Board of Supervisors chairman Dan Bittinger says he’s been notified of the company’s decision. “They called and they said they that they are terminating all easements for that project and that the project is shutting down,” Bittinger said.

MidAmerican’s proposed Siouxland Wind Farm would have had about 60 wind turbines. At times, crowds of over 100 people had attended Woodbury County supervisors meetings to express their opposition to the project. “Thank you to all our citizens for their support and just their feedback regarding that project over the years,” Bittinger said. “That’s just a good win for the county.”

Woodbury County Supervisor Mark Nelson says the intense public debate about the project turned out to be a positive.  “Although they were trying to stop something, it was very uniting and I heard from a lot of people that they didn’t know that their neighbors or the guy down the road or that this person over here cared so much about the future of the county,” Nelson said. “And it has made a lot of friendships of people that have otherwise would have never met, or had a conversation about the future of Woodbury County.”

MidAmerican unveiled plans for the wind farm in late 2021 and began acquiring easements in early 2022. Some landowners have already received annual payments for those easements and a MidAmerican spokesman says they’ll be able to keep that money. MidAmerican owns and operates more wind energy than any other investor-owned utility in the nation. The company says it considers a number of factors when deciding whether the continue projects, including acceptance from the community and increases in costs.