The famous winds of Hawaii have yet again been harnessed to provide electricity to the residents of Oahu. A 30-megawatt facility, the island’s first large-scale wind farm, was inaugurated and put into action recently at Kahuku.

The wind farm has been developed by a Boston-based company, First Wind, and has 12 wind turbines of 2.5-megawatt each, expected to generate electricity to power up about 7,700 homes. Spread over 575 acres, the steel blade turbines are mounted on top of 260 feet high steel towers. Real time information about the amount of electricity being generated will be transmitted via microwave signals to the offices of HECO, the Hawaiian Electric Co. According to the terms of the deal, HECO is buying the wind generated electricity from First Wind at a rate of 19.9 cents per kilowatt-hour.

While the 30-megawatt Kahuku project is small in capacity compared to the islandwide peak load requirement of 1,250 megawatts, it is a small but significant step towards reducing the dependence on oil to generate electricity in Hawaii.