Real Estate & Property Law

Undergroud Energy Storage

By Alan Ackerman

Des Moines Register

Compressed air would be stored in a network of 13 wells 3,000 feet deep and then released at strategic times to turn the turbines on two 134-megawatt electricity generators.
The stored energy project is promoted as not only a source of non-fossil-fuel energy but also a way to store some of the surplus electricity generated during nonpeak hours.The house and land just west of Dallas Center will be bought from Ray Keith. The Stored Energy Center also is negotiating a potential lease with another Dallas County landowner, John Mortimer, but the two sides have yet to reach an agreement.
Stored Energy Park officials hope to have the first well drilled by fall. The well will test the ability of Iowa's subsurface rock to hold air compressed up to 1,400 pounds per square inch.
"This will get us started on the first phase of the project," Stored Energy Park attorney Nicholas Critelli told the board before the vote. "In order to have some comfort level we need to do some invasive testing."

The recent Des Moines Register article fails to include a note that those who own land above the future storage area have rights!   The communities should anticipate a very unpleasant surprise.

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on June 24, 2009 (boomark / email).