Anchorage OKd for first wind farm

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, June 16 (UPI) -- The board of directors at Alaska utility company Chugach Electric Association said it backed the first utility-scale wind power project for Anchorage.

The company in a statement said it will purchase electricity generated from a wind farm planned by Fire Island Wind LLC.

The wind company said the wind farm planned for Anchorage would generate about 48,500 megawatts per hour of electricity annually. That's roughly 4 percent of the total electricity that it sold to its retail customers in 2010.

The originally plans, however, were for a 52.9 MW wind farm. It was downsized specifically to service only Chugach's retail customers, the utility company said.

The wind farm features 11 turbines that would generate enough power for about 6,000 homes. It would be situations on Fire Island off the coast of Anchorage. The Anchorage Daily News reports the project could begin operations in 2013. It's the first for Anchorage, the newspaper adds.