Environment Forum

Wind projects don’t harm property values: study

Not-in-my-backyard — or NIMBY — protests can stall or stop wind power projects, with their spinning turbines, or other renewable energy projects, as Reuters has reported here.

But a new study issued by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory gives wind power companies and developers a leg up in the debate.

The study — which can be read here – examined the sales of 7,500 single-family homes from 1996 to 2007. It found that wind power does not deserve the stigma — like causing a nuisance or ruining the scenery — that it sometimes carries.

“Neither the view of the wind facilities nor the distance of the home to those facilities is found to have any consistent, measurable, and statistically significant effect on home sales prices,” the study said.