If wind power is more expensive, won't adding it make Cedar Falls electric rates go up?
CFU is adding wind power because we consider today’s cost premium a good investment in light of the environmental benefits and longer-term economics. Over time, we believe the cost of coal generation will rise, a carbon tax will be enacted, and effective energy storage technologies will be developed to make wind plants more productive, reliable and cost competitive.
Iowa is third, behind Texas and California, in installed wind energy capacity
. Iowa’s high level of wind production has been achieved without imposing legal mandates on electric utilities.
Why doesn't CFU stop using coal and switch to 100% wind energy?
If 100% of our electricity came from wind, the power would go out when the wind is calm. U.S. research and experience in Europe point to 20% as the maximum share of wind energy that can be reliably distributed through the power grid. The United States Department of Energy has published a plan for reaching 20% wind energy nationwide by 2030 
. The plan identifies benefits and significant barriers, including the need for massive, nationwide investment in new high-voltage transmission lines.
We’ve taken a serious look at doing so. The wind resource is significantly better in other parts of Iowa, producing more electricity per turbine. By building locally, however, we could avoid power transmission costs and bottlenecks. Unfortunately, building height restrictions rule out utility-sized wind turbines on the most suitable sites within CFU’s service area, because of proximity to the Waterloo airport.
Will electric rates go down if CFU gets more of our electricity free from wind power?
Our cost for wind energy today is higher than our cost for coal power. Why? Because dollars spent building coal plants return far more energy than dollars spent building wind turbines. Put another way, a large coal plant can consistently produce power at 90% of its capacity. Even at the most favorable wind locations in North America with the best turbine technology, energy output averages only 40% of turbine capacity because the wind does not always blow. The economic value of Iowa wind farms is further reduced by the fact that energy output is lowest during the peak electricity demand months of July and August.