VINALHAVEN – Residents of this and a neighboring Maine island are now getting their electric power from three windmills that comprise what’s believed to be the largest community-owned wind farm on the East Coast.

The $15 million project was dedicated Tuesday by Maine Gov. John Baldacci and other officials as a large crowd of island residents looked on.

The Fox Islands Wind Project is expected to stabilize power supplies and lower the high energy costs for residents of Vinalhaven and North Haven, known collectively as the Fox Islands. Together, they have a combined year-round population of around 1,600.

“I think it’s a wonderful thing and will eventually lower our electric rates,” said Danielle Webster, a year-round resident of Vinalhaven. “Once we’ve paid it off and reap the benefits, that’ll be the best part.”

The islands’ residents approved the project in a nearly unanimous vote in July 2008. Several other island and coastal communities are now looking at community wind power as a viable alternative to traditional energy sources, according to the cooperative that owns the windmills.

Financing was done through the Fox Islands Electric Cooperative, which secured tax credits the federal government allows to encourage investments in renewable energy projects.

Nearly $10 million came in a low-interest loan from the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service, with a 20-year payback. The rest came in the form of a tax equity investment from Portland-based Diversified Communications.

With blades extended, each of the three 1.5 megawatt turbines will stretch nearly 389 feet into the air on Vinalhaven, which is nestled next to its smaller neighbor about 12 miles off the coast from Rockland. The windmills are expected to generate 11,605 megawatt hours of electricity per year, a little more power than the islands need. Energy not used by the islanders will be sent to the mainland grid.

An official with a national wind-power organization said community wind farms, in which local residents have some measure of ownership or control, are a growing trend with examples in several other states. While there are other community-owned wind farms in eastern states, the American Wind Energy Association’s Susan Williams Sloan said Fox Islands is the largest in New England and probably the largest on the East Coast that’s larger in terms of generating capacity.

“This is a community investing in a wind project in their backyard,” said Sloan. “It’s an example of where a community really embraces an innovative solution.”

Baldacci said the new wind installation “puts Maine at the cutting edge of renewable energy development, and proves that coastal wind is a viable, low-cost energy source.”

Maine has much larger land-based wind farms on the mainland that supply electricity directly to the power grid for New England. The state is seeking to position itself as a leader in development of offshore wind power generation as it studies placing windmills in the Gulf of Maine.