August 5, 2002—Waverly Light and Power, the municipal utility for Waverly, Iowa, which has helped lead the way for wind energy development across the Midwest, has been awarded the 2002 Paul Rappaport Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Award by the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Waverly began its wind program in 1991, at a time when the city faced a crisis in energy supply. In 1993, it installed the first utility-scale wind turbine in Iowa. Beginning with Waverly’s groundbreaking wind program, Iowa to date has installed some 350 wind turbines, producing more than 500 megawatts of electricity. Today, Iowa ranks third among the states, behind only California and Texas, in wind energy development.
Waverly Light and Power also launched the Iowa Energy Tags Program in 2001, becoming the first electric utility in the nation to offer the increasingly popular “tags,” which allow renewable energy to be substituted for traditional energy sources, and lessening the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels.
For more information, contact NREL.
