Beginning in early 2014, Missouri River Energy Services (MRES) will construct a $260 million hydroelectric plant at the Red Rock dam in south-central Iowa.

The plant will be a source of renewable energy for 18,000 homes, in addition to creating hundreds of jobs.

The project has been in the works for years, but is now being set in motion; turbine generators have already been purchased in anticipation of the construction.

MRES is also looking into the possible construction of three more Iowa plants, at the Saylorville Reservoir, in Dubuque, and in Davenport.

For more information about MRES’s plans for Red Rock, click here.