The 15 huge, new windmills that are part of the Southeast's only wind farm are up, and five of them are producing electricity.

By months' end, all of the high-tech wind turbines should be spinning, Invenergy LLC executive Bryan Schueler said.

"I think it went smoothly," he said of the installation of the wind turbines, each weighing 1 million pounds and standing 395 feet tall. "Everyone did a professional job."

Invenergy is the Chicago-based firm that has signed a 20-year contract to sell TVA electricity produced by the new wind turbines.

The wind farm straddles a two-mile swath atop 3,300-foot-tall Buffalo and Patterson mountains near Oliver Springs.

The wind turbines are the newest additions to TVA's Green Power Switch program, which emphasizes non-polluting power production.

TVA owns and operates three smaller wind turbines that have been in operation on Buffalo Mountain for several years.

The new wind turbines are computer-controlled to point the blades into the wind and shift blade angles to reap maximum wind benefits.

They are designed to start spinning when the wind is blowing 9 mph and to automatically shut down when winds hit 56 mph. The average wind speed atop Buffalo Mountain is 17 mph, a TVA spokeswoman said.

The new wind turbines will produce 27 megawatts of power that will flow into TVA's power grid. That's about how much power it takes daily to run 3,525 homes, the spokeswoman said.