Does hosting wind turbines provide farmers with additional income?
Yes.
Wind projects provide farmers with substantial economic benefits while allowing most land to remain in agricultural use.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates about 98% of land within a typical wind project remains available for farming, grazing, or other uses.
Meanwhile, farmers who host turbines can receive long-term lease payments that provide additional income and financial stability. One study found that farmers with turbines invested about twice as much in their farms, while 80% had plans for who would take over or inherit the farm, compared with 62% of farmers without turbines.
Compared with the small amount of farmland used by turbines, unmitigated climate change poses broader risks to agriculture through heat, drought, shifting pests, and reduced crop yields.
This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park and originally published by Skeptical Science. See a full discussion of this at Skeptical Science
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Sources
- NREL Examining Supply-Side Options to Achieve 100% Clean Electricity by 2035
- Handbook of Sustainability and Social Science Research Wind Energy and Rural Community Sustainability
- Center for Rural Affairs Navigating Land Leases for Wind and Solar
- IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land: Chapter 5
- Columbia Law School Sabin Center for Climate Change Law Rebutting 33 False Claims About Solar, Wind, and Electric Vehicles
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