As it heads to a possible vote in the full Iowa Senate, farmers and clean energy advocates in Iowa are touting the benefits of a farm-focused wind energy bill passed in a rare unanimous and bipartisan vote by the Iowa Senate Agriculture Committee (eight Democrats and five Republicans).

The measure, Senate File 372, would require utilities to pay Iowa farmers the same rate for electricity that they pay themselves for wind from their own assets. It establishes a "feed-in tariff" for distributed wind generation on agricultural land, changing current policy so that Iowa farmers can receive income for wind energy that they supply back to the grid.

"These senators should be applauded for putting Iowans first," said Gregg Heide of the Iowa Farmers Union. "This is a common-sense measure that protects our rural heritage and maximizes our renewable energy economy at the same time. We hope their colleagues in the Legislature show the same commitment to Iowa's farmers."

Federal law requires utilities to connect small renewable generation facilities to the grid. Iowa, however, does not require utilities to offer feed-in tariffs. Currently, a mix of state and federal laws allows Iowa utilities to pay individuals a lower price for electricity than what they pay themselves for energy from their own wind farm assets. This financial disparity all but financially locks out many farmers who could otherwise participate in Iowa's robust renewable energy economy.

"This could be a win-win for Iowa - homegrown renewable energy that strengthens and diversifies our rural economy," said Ed Woolsey of the Iowa Renewable Energy Association (I-Renew).

Senate File 372 passed the Senate Agriculture Committee on March 7. The legislation is currently eligible for a floor vote by the Democrat-controlled Iowa Senate. If enacted into law, it would be the first legislation of its kind in the Midwest, and one of only a handful of similar laws nationally. Under the measure, Iowa farmers could ultimately generate up to a collective 60 megawatts annually.

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State Invested $60 Million to House Largest and Fastest Supercomputer on Any University Campus

URBANA-CHAMPAIGN - Governor Pat Quinn today joined the National Science Foundation, officials from the University of Illinois and other state and business leaders to launch the Blue Waters Supercomputer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Today's announcement comes as part of Governor Quinn's agenda to drive the Illinois economy forward and ensure that the state's universities are at the forefront of 21st century science. The largest and fastest supercomputer on any university campus in the world, Blue Waters will offer unprecedented capability for advanced science and engineering applications.

"The University of Illinois continues to be a national leader in innovation, research and engineering progress throughout the world, and today's launch of Blue Waters will allow users to process some of the largest and most challenging problems in science and engineering," Governor Quinn said. "This revolutionary supercomputer will also provide opportunities for private industry, serving as a powerful economic engine by allowing the development of less costly prototypes."

The state of Illinois invested $60 million to construct the Petascale Computing Facility that houses Blue Waters. The National Science Foundation funded the purchase of the computer itself, investing an estimated $350 million to purchase the hardware, pay for five years of support services, power and cool the computer, and provide their own staff to support the system and work with scientists who use it.

Blue Waters is a collaborative effort of the United States Congress, the National Science Foundation, the state of Illinois, the University of Illinois and the Great Lakes Consortium for Petascale Computation. It is the most powerful system supported by the National Science Foundation, and gives the university a unique opportunity to perform groundbreaking research that would otherwise be impossible.

"Blue Waters is a truly extraordinary computing system that will enable the nation's researchers, as well as our innovative companies, to achieve breakthroughs in a broad range of science and engineering," Thom Dunning, director of the university's National Center for Supercomputing Applications said. "Blue Waters is also a unique resource for the University of Illinois and the state of Illinois, enhancing the path-finding role that Illinois has played in supercomputing for more than 25 years."

"For 146 years the U of I has been bringing solutions to the grand challenges of the world," University of Illinois Chancellor Phyllis Wise said. "Each of our new discoveries has built on the ones before it, creating a chain of knowledge and experience that informs and drives the next idea. Blue Waters represents the next link in that unbroken chain,"

Blue Waters completes quadrillions of calculations every second and is designed to help researchers find insights buried in massive quantities of data. This has crucial applications for astronomy, physics, chemistry and engineering. Blue Waters can simulate how the cosmos evolved after the Big Bang, help design new materials at the atomic level, forecast the behavior of hurricanes and tornadoes, assist with genetic mapping to combat disease and simulate complex engineered systems like the power distribution system and experimental aircraft.

Blue Waters is part of the University's National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). It was built from Cray hardware, operates at a sustained performance of more than 1 petaflop (1 quadrillion calculations per second) and is capable of peak performance of 11.61 petaflops (11.6 quadrillion calculations per second). It would take one person millions of years to complete this many calculations with just a calculator. The system also provides "big data" capacity: 1.5 petabytes of working memory, 26 petabytes of disk and 300 petabytes of tape storage.

"Our university and our state will share an enduring link to the life-changing breakthroughs that Blue Waters yields, discovery that holds promise for accelerating medical advances, predicting the behavior of catastrophic weather events and producing more food to feed a growing world," Ed McMillan, a member of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees said.

The system is now available for the NCSA's industry partners, a group of 26 companies and organizations that includes ADM, BP, Boeing, Caterpillar, Dow, GE, John Deere, Procter & Gamble and Rolls Royce.

In commemoration of today's announcement, the governor also proclaimed March 28, 2013 as Blue Waters Supercomputer Day in Illinois.

Alliant Energy Sends a Positive Message to Students and Families

Minneapolis, MN (March 4, 2013) - Elementary school students will enjoy a fun and educational live theatre performance that teaches them and their parents how to be more energy efficient. The National Theatre for Children (NTC)will perform for students in Fairfield, Dewitt and Cedar Rapids on March 11^th and 12^th.  The performances are sponsored by Alliant Energy.

The Energized Guyz is a multiplatform energy efficiency program featuring live, professional actors, classroom curriculum and homework assignments.  Parents and teachers also benefit from these dynamic theatrical shows because the performances get their students focused on good energy efficiency habits such as turning off the lights when leaving a room, using CFL light bulbs and unplugging rechargers when not in use.  The program focuses on the following educational concepts:

• How electricity and energy are made
• Uses of energy
• Ways energy is wasted
• How to conserve energy

Students Test Higher When Linking Natural Resources and Electricity

Studies have shown that linking the need for energy resources to the ways electricity is wasted may help children understand the need for behavior changes, according to Ryan Bliss, project director at RIA, an Oregon-based behavior research firm with expertise in energy-related projects and energy audits. Based on a research study conducted with 30,000 students involved in a similar NTC educational program, "The increased test scores among students who received the NTC curriculum are highly suggestive that in-school energy education helps children learn concepts that can influence behaviors," Bliss says. "Quality education is crucial to understanding the need to change behavior, and we are seeing increased test scores across all ages, all grades and in both urban and rural schools."

Dynamic Teaching Platform

"Live theater is a dynamic teaching platform, especially when combined with curriculum activities, in-class discussion and homework assignments that engage parents," affirms Ward Eames, president of NTC, an organization that has been bringing energy, environmental and social programs to U.S. schools for over 35 years.   Bliss agrees.  "Even young students can understand that they have energy choices.  And the younger they begin learning, the more likely students will retain these concepts throughout their life.

The Energized Guyz features two professional actors who play a variety of characters like the super hero "Nikki Neutron," his boss "U.R. Fired," fellow superhero friend "Thunderstorm," "Bert the Dirt Expert" and the devious villain "The Sneaker." The performance is action packed with high energy comedy and audience interaction.  Students cheer on and learn from the program's hero, Nikki Neutron, who needs to stop The Sneaker from wasting all the energy in town.  The show comes complete with professionally designed sets, props and costumes.

About Alliant Energy

Alliant Energy provides electric service to 525,000 customers and natural gas service to 233,000 customers in more than 700 communities throughout Iowa and southern Minnesota  Alliant Energy is committed to providing the energy and exceptional service its customers and communities expect - safely, reliably, and affordably. For more information, visit alliantenergy.com or call 1-800-ALLIANT (800-255-4268).

About The National Theatre for Children

NTC is the largest touring educational theatre company in the world. Since 1978, NTC has successfully tackled one important issue after another including: financial literacy, electrical safety, water conservation, health care, smoking prevention, recycling, wise energy use, renewable energy, nutrition, and bullying prevention, (to name a few). Our educational outreach programs are entirely underwritten by corporate, non-profit and governmental sponsors who want to be associated with delivering healthy-living messages to students and their families. NTC performs approximately 7,000 times a year throughout the country, actively engaging 2.8 million students and parents through its programming. www.nationaltheatre.com