The Kansas wind soon may provide some of the electricity to Kansas University.

Officials are considering a proposal from Kansas Wind Power LLC that could help trim the universityâÂÂs $5 million annual electricity bill.

âÂÂFrom the outset it sounds like a good thing,â said Cindy Strecker, KUâÂÂs director of utilities. âÂÂIt would save us money, and itâÂÂs green energy instead of from a coal plant. ItâÂÂs worth looking at.âÂÂ

Kansas Wind Power has proposed building a wind farm near Leon in Butler County. Butler County planning commissioners narrowly approved the plan early Wednesday and sent the issue to the Butler County Commission.

Strecker said KU officials were studying the plan to determine how much they could save. Kansas Wind Power officials have told university officials that it would sell energy to KU at a rate below what they now pay.

But one issue is whether public utilities would allow the wind farm to use their lines to transport the electricity and if so, how much they would charge for the service.

Strecker said KU still would need energy from its current electricity provider, Topeka-based Westar, if it signed a contract with Kansas Wind Power.

âÂÂWith the intermittence of wind, itâÂÂs not there all the time,â Strecker said. âÂÂWe have to have the power when we need it, and it wouldnâÂÂt necessarily be at the time the wind is generating power.âÂÂ

Kansas Wind Power already has several KU connections. Steven McCabe, chairman of civil and environmental engineering, is helping the group with research. And two staff members Ãi¿½” Troy Helming, CEO and chairman of the board, and Matt Gilhousen, director of operations Ãi¿½” are KU graduates.

The proposed wind farm would be built on 6,000 acres about 3-1/2 miles south of Leon. The farm would include 50 to 80 turbines, 262 feet tall, to be built on privately owned land.

They would generate enough energy to power 50,000 to 80,000 homes a year, Helming said at the Tuesday night meeting.

On Dec. 3, the planning commission is scheduled to hear a proposal from Elk River Windfarm LLC, based in Larkspur, Calif., which wants to build an 8,000-acre wind farm south of Beaumont.

Ãi¿½” The Associated Press contributed information for this report.