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DES MOINES — For the first time, more than a third of Iowa’s electricity is generated by wind power, according to a study published Thursday.

Wind energy provided 35.8 percent of the electricity generated in Iowa in the year spanning August 2015 to July 2016, according to the report published by the American Wind Energy Association.

That’s the highest percentage ever for Iowa, which has the highest rate of wind energy production in the nation.

In 1983, during his first stint as governor, Terry Branstad signed into law a state renewable energy requirement, and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, authored the federal tax credit for wind energy production.

“As I’m fond of saying, wind is winning,” said Chris Brown, the American Wind Energy Association’s board chairman and president of the wind energy company Vestas Americas. “Wind is winning here in Iowa, wind is winning in America, and wind will continue to win in the rest of the world.”

Iowa is second in the country to Texas in wind energy production, with installed capacity of more than 6,000 megawatts, which is enough electricity to power the equivalent of more than 1.6 million average U.S. homes, according to the report. Texas’ capacity is more than 18,000 megawatts.