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So many Decorah residents are putting up solar panels and installing small turbines that Alliant Energy, which serves the city of 7,700 in Winneshiek County, is nearing the limit of how much distributed energy it can host without degrading the quality of electricity in the community.
Luther College’s wind turbine generates power in Decorah, Iowa, on Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021. Alliant Energy is building a $2.5 million, 2.5 megawatt battery system that will store energy generated by wind turbines and solar arrays in the area. The system consists of 360 lithium ion batteries each weighing 114 pounds. The system should be done with its conditioning and commissioning processes and go online sometime in March. The system will store power generated during off peak hours during the middle of the day by homeowners’ wind turbines and solar arrays, while homeowners are away from their houses, and return it to the grid when residents are back at their homes in the evening. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)