Powering innovation and research

What’s the best way to build stronger communities? By investing in them. We’re sparking growth within our service territory by helping existing businesses expand and new businesses relocate here.

We’ve brought businesses to ready-made sites for new manufacturing facilities, planted and gifted trees to organizations and individuals across our service territory and connected customers with available financial resources to assist with energy bills.

Our investments don’t end there: we’re also powering a Digital Manufacturing Lab at the Iowa State University Research Park. This partnership with ISU’s Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS) helps businesses evaluate problems and find innovative opportunities using Industry 4.0 technology, such as collaborative robots (cobots), 3-D scanning and autonomous vehicles.

At the Digital Manufacturing Lab, businesses can explore how technologies would fit their workforce and learn how to train staff on data, cobots, automation and other new technologies. The lab is constantly expanding: Within the first 18 months of operation, 36 projects came through the Digital Manufacturing Lab and had a $3 million impact on Iowa.

“Since we started this partnership over three years ago, I have seen growth in the types of technology demonstrated and the complexity of problems solved by the CIRAS Industry 4.0 staff,” said Nick Peterson, strategic partnerships manager at Alliant Energy. “The combination of education, consulting, and collaboration provides immense benefits to the companies who are navigating complex and, at times, costly decisions about their technology investments.”

The progress made in the Digital Manufacturing Lab can benefit all Iowans as we further deliver on our purpose to serve our customers and build stronger communities.