AWS Scientific Report Regarding Property Values

A letter from Bruce Bailey, President of AWS Scientific, Inc. in support of the windmill in the Town of Sweden

I was recently contacted by Mr. Kevin Harrison who described his zoning ordeal with the Town of Sweden regarding his proposed installation of a windmill; this was followed by the Supreme Court's ruling in his favor. It is my understanding that the Court is now considering a case concerning a claimant's concern that the proposed residential windmill would cause the property value of neighboring lots to decline. As a professional in the renewable energy field for the last 22 years, I feel compelled to offer my insight into the actual impacts of windmills on communities in general, and on property values specifically.

First let me describe my credentials. I am the owner and president of AWS Scientific, Inc., a technical firm in Albany, NY specializing in engineering-related and meteorological consulting services in the wind energy, solar energy, and environmental monitoring fields. We provide numerous services to utility, government, and private sector clients in the areas of project planning, siting, permitting, technology testing and evaluation, public education, and training. My firm has conducted wind energy related field measurement and demonstration projects at over 50 sites in New York State alone. Most projects have required landowner agreements and local zoning reviews or permits for the towers that have been installed, ranging in height from 50 ft to 165 ft. Since 1991, we have managed the siting, permitting, operation, and maintenance of the largest wind energy project in New York State on behalf of the Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation. This project, located in Lewis County in the Town of Denmark on the northern Tug Hill Plateau, consists of two 360-kW capacity turbines each having a blade span of 108 ft.

I have an M.S. and Ph.D. in engineering management from California Coast University, and a B.S. in Meteorology from Cornell University. I am also a Certified Consulting Meteorologist with the American Meteorological Society. From 1974 to 1985, I was a research associate with the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at the State University of New York at Albany where I began my career in the wind energy field and was in charge of the wind energy research program there. At that time I wrote the New York State Wind Energy Handbook on behalf of the State Energy Office. The handbook advises prospective windmill owners and the general public on the steps to take to assure that a windmill purchase and siting decision be a sound one and considers the potential impacts on neighbors, among other issues.

I left the university in 1985 to join AWS Scientific full-time. I have been a member of the American Wind Energy Association for 20 years, and am the Chairman of its Siting Committee. I have written about 30 technical wind energy papers and have organized or participated in over 50 seminars and workshops on the subject. I have toured thousands of windmills throughout the United States and northern Europe, and consider public acceptance as one of the most crucial issues to address when developing new projects.

It has been my observation that properly operating windmills do not negatively impact neighbors nor harm property values. Indeed, windmills have been a familiar sight across America and abroad for centuries, and the popularity of windmills is now experiencing a resurgence, primarily due to economic and environmental factors. Let me briefly summarize this history to illustrate why concerns over negative property value impacts are unfounded.

Millions of windmills have dotted America's landscape over the past 120 years. Most of these were in rural America and provided power for water pumping, grinding grain, and generating electricity. The large number of windmills declined after the 1920's and 1930's due to the widespread installation of power lines via the national Rural Electrification Program. Farmers and homeowners, having access to virtually unlimited electricity from a power line, no longer needed to maintain their own windmill, which worked only when the wind blew. Then in the mid-1970's after the Arab Oil Embargo, interest grew in renewable energy resources to help decrease our dependence on foreign oil. Modern windmill designs were developed to produce electricity efficiently and cost-effectively. Both large- and small-scale windmills re-populated the landscape in key areas of the country, most heavily in California, although most States, including New York, saw a resurgence. In California alone, wind energy development has grown to over 16,000 turbines over the last 15 years. The Midwest is the next region to see substantial development, especially in Minnesota and Iowa. Interestingly, windmills are becoming more common on school grounds in this region. Real estate values in all of these areas have actually climbed once it was recognized that there was value to harvesting the wind as well as the land.

Windmills are proliferating in Europe too. Many modern windmills are owned by community cooperatives in pursuit of self-sufficiency and lower energy bills. The public in general is increasingly demanding the use of cleaner forms of energy and have found windmills to be safe, reliable, and compatible with existing land uses. Today's windmills can produce electricity for between 4 and 8 cents per kilowatt hour, depending on the location's wind resources and the size of the windmill project. Third World countries are now planning to use windmills in large numbers to supply electricity to remote villages instead of building long power lines connected to centralized fossil-fueled power plants. In all countries, energy policies are favoring non-polluting, indigenous energy sources that do not contribute to acid rain, global warming, and fuel cost and supply instability. Windmills offer diversity, thus stability, to the energy supply mix, and provide economic benefits to the local community.

With this long and broad background of use, windmills have obviously not been detrimental to their localities. If they had, their proliferation would have been limited and their acceptance denied in most areas. On the contrary, windmills have been regarded as assets to their owners and to the adjacent communities. This is why they are accepted in a rapidly growing number of areas throughout the world. They create a local job base for installation and maintenance purposes, reduce the outflow of money to distant energy suppliers, provide multi-functional opportunities for agricultural lands, and contribute to a cleaner, safer environment.

It is human nature to resist something new and unfamiliar in the neighborhood. People are naturally uncomfortable at first when a stranger moves into town, but it isn't long before they become friends. Subtly, the community is enriched. Many windmill projects springing up over the last 15 years have in fact encountered initial resistance from some landowners and communities, mainly out of fear of the unknown. But once experienced, these same individuals and communities not only accepted the pioneering machines, but enthusiastically pursued or accepted more projects.

I suspect that the resistance to Mr. Harrison’s proposed windmill is based at least in part upon preconceived notions or misinformation, given that windmills are not a common site in the Town’s recent history. The record elsewhere shows that windmills are not inherently detrimental, but rather a productive, functional part of the community. It is generally accepted that the quality, use and location of the land itself, as what lies beneath it (e.g. gas, oil, ore, etc.), contributes to its value. Mr. Harrison is proposing to demonstrate that what is above the land - the wind - has value too.

Thank you for this opportunity to comment. It is my hope that this case is resolved in a manner consistent with wind energy’s past and constructive for its future. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Bruce H. Bailey, Ph.D.
President, AWS Scientific, Inc.