Florida Power & Light's sister company is the biggest producer of wind power in the country, but the utility can't seem to get a wind project off the ground in its home state.

FPL's proposal to build a wind farm on a barrier island in St. Lucie County has languished in the halls of county government since it was filed in 2007.

Nearby residents have called the 400-foot-tall turbines eyesores and questioned their impact on Hutchinson Island's shoreline. County commissioners have wondered if they generate enough electricity to be worthwhile.

Even after FPL scaled back the plans from nine turbines to six last year - eliminating three proposed for public conservation land - it wasn't enough to win the project instant support.

In January, St. Lucie County officials sent the utility a six-page letter, peppering it with questions about the impact on nesting sea turtles and dune erosion, among other issues. FPL has until the end of the month to respond, said Mark Satterlee, the county's growth management director.

The wind farm would be the first in Florida, and St. Lucie County isn't taking that designation lightly.

"While the impacts may be known out in Texas or Indiana, this is a different environment," Satterlee said.

The six turbines would produce 13.8 megawatts of electricity, enough to serve 1,800 houses or 3,600 people. The cost is estimated at $45 million, or about 3 cents a month on the average FPL customer's bill.

The so-called St. Lucie Wind project would generate $3.5 million in property and sales tax revenue - no small factor for a county deeply affected by declining property values.

"At FPL, we think this makes all the sense in the world," said Eric Silagy, chief development officer for the company.

All six turbines would be built on property surrounding FPL's St. Lucie nuclear plant, where they would connect with existing transmission lines. The utility believes the site is ideal because the average annual wind speed is about 14 mph, faster than average in Florida.

The Juno Beach-based utility is owned by FPL Group Inc. (NYSE: FPL). Its other subsidiary, NextEra Energy Resources, owns wind farms from Oregon to Pennsylvania, but none in not-so-blustery Florida. Wind makes up 38 percent of NextEra's fuel mix, but none of FPL's.

"I think wind is a pretty expensive option in Florida. Wind is a lot cheaper in farm country in mid-America," said David Parker, a utilities analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. in Tampa.