Amazon a buyer for power generated by North Carolina wind farm, South's first big wind project

A division of Amazon is buying the renewable energy generated by the South's first big wind-power project.

Amazon Web Services said Monday it has agreed to buy the electricity generated by the 200-megawatt operation to be built near Elizabeth City in rural eastern North Carolina. A groundbreaking for the project being built by Iberdrola Renewables is scheduled for Tuesday.

The completed wind farm is expected to produce enough power for more than 60,000 homes by the end of 2016.

Amazon Web Services operates a series of electricity-hungry Internet servers that are used to offer cloud computing services that can be accessed from any machine with an Internet connection. The fast-growing division of Amazon announced revenues of more than $1.5 billion in the most recent quarter.