The US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory released a technical analysis stating there is no evidence that prices of homes surrounding wind facilities are
consistently, measurably, and significantly affected by either the view
of wind facilities or the distance of the home to those facilities.
The research, funded by DOE’s Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program, is said to be the most comprehensive and data-rich analysis on the subject to date, using a combination of different analytic approaches.
"Though the analysis cannot dismiss the possibility that individual homes or small numbers of homes have been or could be negatively impacted, it finds that if these impacts do exist, their frequency is too small to result in any widespread, statistically observable impact," DOE said.
The team of researchers collected data on almost 7,500 sales of single-family homes situated within 10 miles–with the closest home within 800 feet–of 24 existing wind energy facilities in nine different states. The transactions occurred between 1996 and 2007, spanning the period prior to the announcement of each wind energy facility to well after its construction and full-scale operation. Researchers 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 from the field.
The conclusions of the study were drawn from eight different hedonic pricing models, as well as repeat sales and sales volume models. A hedonic model is a statistical analysis method used to estimate the impact of house characteristics on sales prices. The various analyses were strongly consistent in that none of the models uncovered conclusive evidence of the existence of any widespread property value effects that might be present in communities surrounding wind energy facilities.
Over 30,000 megawatts (MW) 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 attempts to address these needs by funding research and disseminating information through its education and outreach initiative, Wind Powering America. While other studies have found negative property value impacts near landfills, high voltage transmission lines, and other types of electric generation facilities, the Berkeley Lab analysis did not detect any evidence of widespread property value impacts from existing wind energy facilities in the United States.
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 link below.
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