Study Shows that Wind Power has Little Influence on Property Values

One of the arguments made against installing wind power turbines is that they are unsightly and that they drive down property values.

However, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory recently released a technical analysis of wind energy facilities' impacts on the property values of nearby residences. The research, funded by DOE's Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program, is the most comprehensive analysis ever conducted on this issue.

Using a combination of different analytic approaches, the investigation found no evidence that prices of homes surrounding wind facilities are consistently, measurably, and significantly affected by either the view of wind facilities or the proximity to those facilities.

The team of researchers collected data on almost 7,500 sales, between 1996 and 2007, of single-family homes situated within 10 miles of existing wind energy facilities in nine different states; the closest home was a mere 800 feet from a facility. For each wind facility, local sales were examined from the period prior to the announcement of a facility’s construction to well after its construction and full-scale operation.

Researchers also visited each home to determine the degree to which the wind energy facility was likely visible at the time of home sale and to collect other essential data. The study’s conclusions were drawn from eight different hedonic pricing models (a statistical analysis method used to estimate the impact of house characteristics on sales prices), as well as repeat sales and sales volume models. The various analyses consistently demonstrated that was no conclusive evidence of the existence of any widespread property value effects in communities surrounding wind energy facilities.

Researchers cautioned that the analysis did not dismiss the possibility that individual homes or small numbers of homes have been or could be negatively impacted. The study found that if these effects do exist, they are too infrequent to result in any widespread, statistically observable impact.

Over 30,000 megawatts of wind capacity is installed across the United States and an increasing number of communities are considering new wind power development. Given this progress, there is an urgent need to empirically investigate common community concerns and thereby provide stakeholders involved in the siting process a common base of knowledge.

DOE's Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program addresses these needs by funding research and disseminating information through its education and outreach initiative, Wind Powering America. Other studies have found negative property value impacts near landfills, high voltage transmission lines, and other types of electric generation facilities.

The full report, "The Impact of Wind Power Projects on Residential Property Values in the United States: A Multi-Site Hedonic Analysis" is available at the DOE website.