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Understanding wind power's economic and environmental benefits

fuel prices.

Job Creation:
Wind power projects create high-quality jobs which increase business and household income, which in turn creates more jobs which further increase business and household income, and so on. Typically It creates about one to two jobs per turbine during construction, and about 6 to 20 permanent jobs for operating and maintaining every 100 megawatts (MW) of installed generating capacity. Tourism and retail economies benefit from wind power as well, both from construction workers (who spend their dollars on housing, restaurants, and local goods) and from out-of-town visitors to wind facilities.

Property Revenues:
Wind power developments can be a source of supplemental revenue for landowners in rural areas. Each megawatt (MW) of turbine capacity generally requires 25 to 50 acres, and the landowner usually loses the use of about two to four percent of these acres, including access roads. Payments to landowners are often a percentage of the gross revenues of the wind project, usually between one and three percent. A typical annual royalty payment to landowners ranges from $1,500 to $2,000 per turbine (approximately $40 to $50 per acre), with the landowner still able to farm or allow grazing on all areas surrounding the turbines. In addition, there is sometimes an upfront payment of $1,000 to $3,000 from the developer to the landowner for the assessment of the property for wind resource potential (Brown and Woelfel 2000). In the U.S. national study to date, sales data from 25,000 properties within five miles of wind turbines, compared with similar properties without views of wind turbines, showed no evidence of wind power reducing property values.

There are also some economic and environmental negative impacts which are out of scope of this topic, but they can be easily adjusted and remedies can be made.

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References:
1. http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_en ergy/renewable_energy_basics/W PNE-Overview.html
2. http://www.mge.com/images/PDF/ Brochures/WindPower/BenefitsOf Wind.pdf
3. http://www.catenergy.com/faq.h tml
4. Assessing the Economic Development Impacts of Wind Power, Northwest Economic Associates, 12009 N.E. 99th Street, Suite 1410, Vancouver, WA 98682-2497

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