Los Angeles breaks ground on wind farm to power 56,000 homes

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/01/31/financial/f174440S48.DTL

City officials broke ground Thursday on a mountainside wind farm that is expected to produce enough electricity to power 56,000 homes when it's completed next year.

The 8,000-acre Pine Tree Wind Project in the Tehachapi Mountains about 100 miles north of Los Angeles will more than double the portion of energy the nation's second-largest city gets from wind and help fulfill its pledge to having a fifth of its energy come from renewable sources by 2010, officials said.

The $425 million, 120 megawatt facility will have 80 turbines and a new high-voltage transmission line.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said dependence on fossil fuel has left the United States too needy of oil from the Middle East and has made the country into the world's leading source of greenhouse gas emissions.

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