WEVER, Iowa (WGEM) – A renewable energy facility in southeast Iowa is finishing up a recent expansion.
Work on Alliant Energy’s new Battery Energy Storage System began in May and it will be going into operation later this month.
The facility is located in Wever, Iowa, next to their existing solar field.
The battery site was designed by FlexGen and can store energy from solar or other sources and be released when needed.
“It’s our long-term energy blueprint. With high demand of energy, we need to come up with a solution which is affordable and reliable,” said Abichu Abebe, manager of engineering at Alliant Energy. “That’s the reason batteries come into play. When we have excess energy from solar or demand is low, we charge the batteries and when demand is high or the price is high, we discharge the batteries, which means it’s affordable and reliable for our customers.”
Representatives from Alliant Energy and FlexGen met with local emergency responders Wednesday to go over emergency response plans.
The facility contains almost 130 battery containers that store around 99 megawatts of energy for the grid and serve around 100,000 homes.
“Understand how to respond to these things if something were to go wrong and making sure that they’re staying safe and they’re operating responsibly when they come to an incident,” said Devin Keber, FlexGen vice president of Safety and Compliance. “There is an emergency response plan that lines out everything that they need to have at their fingertips whenever they show up and understanding they know what resources they have to use to respond to an incident out here.”
The facility has an estimated 20-year lifespan and will be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week, allowing operators to act immediately if needed.
“We’re making sure that we’re setting up the first responders for success when or if they come out here for an actual event,” said Keber. “These are a bump stop for the actual grid, so they’re going to help fortify the grid, they’re going to help the overall grid and the community to have more stable power.”
Copyright 2026 WGEM. All rights reserved.
