By Dan Fiorucci Channel 2 News KTUU

1:44 p.m. AKDT, August 30, 2012
ANCHORAGE, Alaska—
Wind speeds hit 30-miles-per-hour Thursday morning and powered up several of the much-anticipated Fire Island wind turbines for a test.

Cook Inlet Region, Inc. has 11 turbines on Fire Island and turbines 2 and 4 successfully generated power at full capacity for several hours in the morning.

The turbines fed electricity to Chugach Electric Association and its customers and provided about 3 million watts of power, according to the CIRI energy team.

Three turbines were connected to the grid on Wednesday, however there was not enough wind to generate electricity.

CIRI called Thursday testing a “milestone” for the wind farm and said the project could go online permanently within the next few weeks.