Wind projects don't affect property values

BERKELEY, Calif., Dec. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. government scientists say they've found a home's proximity to wind energy facilities has no pervasive or widespread adverse effect on property values.

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory said their study was based on site visits, data collection and an analysis of nearly 7,500 single-family home sales. They said their research is the most comprehensive and data-rich analysis to date on the potential impact of U.S. wind projects on residential property values.

The scientists said more than 30,000 megawatts of wind energy capacity are installed across the United States and an increasing number of communities are considering new wind power facilities. That, they said, means there is an urgent need to empirically investigate typical community concerns about wind energy and thereby provide stakeholders involved in the wind project siting process a common base of knowledge.

"Neither the view of wind energy facilities nor the distance of the home to those facilities was found to have any consistent, measurable and significant effect on the selling prices of nearby homes," said report author Ben Hoen, a consultant to Berkeley Lab. "No matter how we looked at the data, the same result kept coming back -- no evidence of widespread impacts."

The report is available at http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/ems/reports/lbnl-2829e.pdf.