Construction crews are building what will be the highest wind tower in North America in an eastern Iowa cornfield between Mechanisville and Tipton. Peter Gray is a spokesman for Acciona, the company that is building the tower.

“It’s a three-megawatt turbine which has a 100 meter concrete tower and a 116-meter rotor. What that means is, its got more blade to catch the wind to generate more electricity,” Gray explains. Acciona has plants in Spain and one in West Branch, Iowa.

Gray says the size of the tower will grab your attention, but the unseen inner workings of the tower and turbine are also impressive. “What you can’t see is the amount of electricity that will be generated,” Gray says. “It’s got double the power of our older model turbine. So that means more electricity generated from a single turbine.”

Two towers are going up on the Steve Weets Cedar County farm — one traditional steel and the other a concrete structure being shipped from Acciona’s plant in Spain. Builders are trying to take advantage before the wind power tax credit expires at the end of the year.