Broad Understanding as a Starting Point for Constructive Solutions for Siting Wind Energy Projects

August 2024
Citation:
54
ELR 10664
Issue
8
Author
Eric Lantz

Prof. Christiana Ochoa et al.’s Deals in the Heartland: Renewable Energy Projects, Local Resistance, and How Law Can Help is a thought-provoking piece that coincides with significant growth in the wind industry, as well as broad-based expansion of county-level ordinances regulating wind power. It is a useful contribution to the literature and to the conversation around this topic. The Comment additionally notes that it is very difficult to find clear objective and predictive measures of whether property values are going to be impacted—positively or negatively— by wind turbines and wind plants because it can be a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, and that wind energy is not a monolith—we need to exploit the diversity that is possible with wind energy to help solve the challenges.

Eric Lantz is Director of the Wind Energy Technologies Office at the U.S. Department of Energy.

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