Hawaii is joining the wind farm party. The Kahuku project, near the windy North Shore by Oahu, will generate enough electricity to power nearly about 7,700 homes a year.

“To be continually dependent on imported oil or energy is a dead end for Hawaii and we can be a model for the world,” said Governor Linda Lingle at the groundbreaking ceremony.

“The goal is to be generating power in the early part of 2011,” said Paul Gaynor, First Wind CEO. “We’ll probably have some test power in November/December and then commercially operating in January/February of 2011.”

First Wind says the turbine farm project will cut Hawaii’s oil consumption by almost 140,000 barrels a year.