Building Energy, an Italian company involved in the production of renewable energy in Italy and numerous foreign markets, has signed a partnership agreement with Optimum Renewables for the development of a wind farm pipeline in Iowa. The agreement provides for the development of wind farms in Iowa with a total capacity of around 50 MW. Specifically, this will include the construction of a series of medium-size farms (4-5 MW each) dispersed throughout the state in a manner structured to reach the greatest possible number of local communities.

Optimum Renewables will identify and select opportunities for the development of the wind farms and Building Energy will act as an overall sponsor of the activities. This will involve managing the entire project cycle from the preliminary stages of negotiating with financial providers to the eventual construction and maintenance of the farms, which will be wholly owned by Building Energy.

Fabrizio Zago, CEO of Building Energy, said, “The partnership with Optimum Renewables builds on the agreements we signed with leading U.S. energy providers in 2012, and will enable Building Energy to strengthen its presence in the U.S. market, where the existing program of incentives for the development of renewable sources has just been reconfirmed. This project will be the first significant step towards diversification into wind energy taken by our company, which so far has mainly concentrated on photovoltaic technology both in Italy and abroad.”

In 2012, energy from wind farms exceeded a total capacity of 5,100 MW, or 24.5 percent of Iowa’s total energy production. The U.S. government approved the extension into 2013 of the wind power production tax credit, an incentive program which has fostered solid growth in the sector over the last few years making investing in and building wind farms attractive.