Siemens wins big Midwestern US wind turbine order

FRANKFURT: German engineering group Siemens said Tuesday it has won a contract that could be worth some 600 million euros (790 million dollars) to supply 258 wind turbines to a US power company.

Siemens is to build and install the turbines for three MidAmerican Energy Company projects in the state of Iowa that should provide 593 megawatts of energy, enough for 190,000 average US households, a statement said.

The value of the deal was not specified but a Siemens spokesman told AFP that industry calculations put the cost of installing one megawatt of power at around one million euros.

Two Siemens plants, one in Iowa and a new one in Kansas would build the turbines "and the company has committed to further production expansion as the US market continues to grow," the statement said.

Iowa has the highest percentage of wind energy generation of any state in the United States, Siemens executive Rene Umlauft noted.