Representatives from Italian business and government joined state leaders in marking the beginning of operations for the Story County Wind Farm Wednesday. The farm is primarily run by Building Energy, a renewable power company based in Milan, Italy, in cooperation with Des Moines-based energy firm Optimum Renewables. The $58 million project includes four 297-foot towers grouped closely together between Ames and Nevada, two near Huxley and four more turbines spread across Story, Boone, Hardin and Poweshiek counties.

A large group of employees of the company, along with several U.S. collaborators on the project, cut a ceremonial ribbon in front of a turbine as the farm began sending its electrical output into the energy grid. Building Energy chief operating officer Alessandro Bragantini said each of the towers can produce up to three megawatts of electricity for Alliant Energy customers. The farm can generate up to 110 gigawatt hours annually, enough to cover the needs of 11,000 U.S. families while reducing the equivalent of 77,000 tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the environment by non-green forms of energy.