Abstract
Because it is a carbon-free source of electricity, wind energy is often unquestioned as an environmentally sustainable technology. But is this technology sustainable when considered within the context of the rural communities in which it is often sited? This paper uses survey data from paired rural communities with and without utility-scale wind energy projects to understand the economic and social impacts of wind energy development on these predominantly agricultural communities. It finds clear economic benefits to the communities that host wind turbines—namely, that wind developers’ payments to landowners are largely re-invested in farming operations, leading to economic stability and increasing expectations that a younger generation will want to stay on the farm. The social impacts of wind development are more nuanced, and depend upon the windfarm’s business model. Specifically, windfarms are least disruptive of the social structure in rural communities when wind developers employ a business model that gives more community members a direct financial stake in the project.
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Notes
- 1.
In the traditional wind development business model, only landowners with turbines on their property are directly compensated. An alternated “pooled royalty” business model spreads this same amount of money among all landowners who initially expressed willingness to have a turbine on their property, regardless of whether they ultimately received a turbine on their property or not, on a per-acre basis. In these pooling arrangements, the royalty share of the lease payment is diluted as it is shared among more landowners, but a higher proportion of community members receive direct payments from the wind developer.
- 2.
Many wdevelopers require leaseholders to keep lease terms confidential, but in interviews with local officials in the case study communities, the annual payments to landowners are likely less than $12,000 per turbine per year. Considering that most landowners have only one or two turbines on their property, few would be receiving $50,000 per year.
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Mills, S. (2018). Wind Energy and Rural Community Sustainability. In: Leal Filho, W., Marans, R., Callewaert, J. (eds) Handbook of Sustainability and Social Science Research. World Sustainability Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67122-2_12
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