Wind power doesn

THE RHETORIC: Wind farms hurt  property values.

THE REALITY: Wind power doesn’t affect property values long-term, studies show. It does drive community economic development that benefits all property owners.

• Scenic views and visibility of human development of all kinds—not just wind power development—can both positively and negatively affect property values.
• A major study released in August on wind farms and property values by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) analyzed more than 50,000 home sales near 67 wind facilities in 27 counties across nine U.S. states, yet was unable to uncover any impacts to nearby home property values.
•  “Neither the view of wind energy facilities nor the distance of the home to those facilities was found to have any consistent, measurable, and significant effect on the selling prices of nearby homes,” the U.S. Department of Energy found. ¹
•  “Property tax payments of 1% of the assessed value of a wind project equal approximately $10,000 per megawatt for rural communities  each year,” the National Renewable Energy Laboratory reported.²  To calculate additional jobs and spinoff economic activity, see  www.windpoweringamerica.gov/economics.asp.