(Spencer)– A company that wants to build a 500 mile long electrical transmission line that would run between northwest Iowa and the Chicago area is holding a series of public informational meetings in the region.
Hans Detweiler, Director of Development for Clean Line Energy, says the company has not yet identified a possible route for the line. But he says they’ve been taking public comment on where the line should and should not go.
Detweiler says it probably wouldn’t be up and operational until sometime in 2016 or 2017…at the earliest.
He says construction of the line would represent a 1.7 billion dollar investment. He says construction of additional wind farms that would come along with it would amount to roughly another 7 billion dollars in investments.
Detweiler says the construction of any additional wind farms in the region will more than likely hinge on the transmission line going up, adding there’s no additional capacity on the existing grid.
Informational open houses were held Thursday in Spencer and Emmetsburg.
