Make Wind Energy a Community Affair this Holiday Season

The holidays are a time for coming together as a community. When we’re seated around the holiday dinner table or joining neighbors for festive celebrations, our reliance on our families and communities comes into sharp focus. 

That reliance on each other is especially important when it comes to making decisions about our communities’ energy use and future—including, for example, whether to set up a small wind energy project that could power local homes and businesses or to permit the construction of a large wind project nearby. Community members, rightly, need reliable information to inform opinions about something that could affect their electric bills, the local economy, and more. 

To support communities in their decision making, we’ve developed this helpful guide that answers some important questions about wind energy in your community. (Answers to many more questions can be found on the Wind Energy Technologies Office’s WINDExchange website, a hub of information and resources aimed at helping communities better understand the benefits and impacts of wind energy.)

What types of wind energy projects could be set up in my community? 

There are now many sizes of wind power projects to consider. Options exist to power your home, your school, your whole community, or the main electric grid! Residential-scale turbines offer enough power for one home—and many states provide incentives for this type of turbine. Developers can choose different sizes of larger commercial turbines (over 10 kilowatts) based on the amount of power needed, whether for an industrial facility, a school campus, an entire community, or more. 

What are the financial benefits of having wind energy in my community? 

Utility-scale wind energy projects are multiturbine wind farms, featuring wind turbines that are at least 100 kilowatts in size and connected to the national transmission system (also called “the grid”). Development of these projects often relies on local landowners to lease their land or local community officials approve construction. (Learn more about the process for siting large-scale renewable energy.) Many wind projects include local tax payments and land-lease payments to communities each year, which provide stable revenue to fund schools, support local infrastructure projects, or provide tax relief to residents. 

The economic benefits each community will experience from wind energy can vary by state, region, and even locality. A good starting place for community decision makers is the Land-Based Wind Energy Economic Development Guide, which includes best practices for wind power project developers and with other communities that have already gone through the same process. 

The Wind Energy Technologies Office also provides additional funding resources including federal incentives and partnership opportunities.

Are there any drawbacks to having a wind farm near my community? 

Community members may express concern about the potential impacts of utility-scale wind projects, such as noise, unsightliness, or impact on local wildlife. But the majority of projects, when properly sited, can coexist with a community and bring benefits. Here are some quick facts that can dispel common concerns about wind energy:

• Extensive research has shown wind turbines have no long-term impact to property values.
• The average sound you hear from a utility-scale wind turbine, at an average distance, is between 35–45 decibels—no louder than a typical refrigerator.
• Shadow flicker—or the shadows cast by a rotating turbine—is readily managed and potentially problematic in limited locations for only a few hours each year. 
• Turbine failures are incredibly rare, and blade designers have developed safeguards for a variety of potential safety concerns.
• Proper project site selection can mitigate many concerns about disruption to a community’s views (also called “viewshed”).
• Though there are concerns about turbines’ impact on local wildlife, properly sited wind power can help protect birds, bats and other wildlife from climate change, and ongoing research continues to monitor and mitigate impact.
• The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) surveyed about 1,700 U.S. residents who live near wind turbines and found they had mostly neutral to very positive attitudes about having the turbines in their community, and their attitudes tended to improve over time.

What other benefits could a community expect? 

Developing local utility-scale wind energy can spur the neighboring economy before—and after—construction. Although community benefit agreements are still voluntary for wind energy developers, they are often used as a way to offer local communities leverage to receive  maximum benefits in exchange for their land. These often include agreements to use local construction and transportation services as the wind power plant is being developed. In addition, if workers are brought in from other areas, they can contribute to the local economy through patronage at local hotels and restaurants. WindExchange’s economic analysis tools can help guide the discussion about the financial impacts of a wind energy project. 

Installing wind energy in or around your community is also of course a great way to make a positive impact on the amount of clean energy on the grid, reducing the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere and moving towards a future that entails U.S. energy independence. 

Still have questions? Stay up to date on the exciting (and ever-evolving) world of wind energy by exploring WETO’s latest updates and subscribing to the Catch the Wind newsletter.