Search Advanced

AIMS Energy

2014, Volume 2, Issue 4: 424-442. doi: 10.3934/energy.2014.4.424
Previous Article Next Article
Research article Special Issues

Wind energy development and perceived real estate values in Ontario, Canada

  • 1.
    Department of Geography, Western University, London, ON N6A 5C2, Canada;
  • 2.
    Environmental Science Program, Western University, London, ON N6A 5C2, Canada
  • Received: 03 October 2014 Accepted: 19 November 2014 Published: 27 November 2014

  • This paper focuses on public concerns about real estate value loss in communities in the vicinity of wind turbines. There are some conflicting results in recent academic and non-academic literatures on the issue of property values in general—yet little has been studied about how residents near turbines view the value of their own properties. Using both face-to-face interviews (n = 26) and community survey results (n = 152) from two adjacent communities, this exploratory mixed-method study contextualizes perceived property value loss. Interview results suggest a potential connection between perceived property value loss and actual property value loss, whereby assumed property degradation from turbines seem to lower both asking and selling prices. This idea is reinforced by regression results which suggest that felt property value loss is predicted by health concerns, visual annoyances and community-based variables. Overall, the findings point to the need for greater attention to micro-level local, and interconnected impacts of wind energy development.

    Citation: Chad Walker, Jamie Baxter, Sarah Mason, Isaac Luginaah, Danielle Ouellette. Wind energy development and perceived real estate values in Ontario, Canada[J]. AIMS Energy, 2014, 2(4): 424-442. doi: 10.3934/energy.2014.4.424

    Related Papers:

  • This paper focuses on public concerns about real estate value loss in communities in the vicinity of wind turbines. There are some conflicting results in recent academic and non-academic literatures on the issue of property values in general—yet little has been studied about how residents near turbines view the value of their own properties. Using both face-to-face interviews (n = 26) and community survey results (n = 152) from two adjacent communities, this exploratory mixed-method study contextualizes perceived property value loss. Interview results suggest a potential connection between perceived property value loss and actual property value loss, whereby assumed property degradation from turbines seem to lower both asking and selling prices. This idea is reinforced by regression results which suggest that felt property value loss is predicted by health concerns, visual annoyances and community-based variables. Overall, the findings point to the need for greater attention to micro-level local, and interconnected impacts of wind energy development.


    加载中
    [1] United States Department of Energy, 2012 Renewable Energy Data Book. 2013. Available from: http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy14osti/60197.pdf.
    [2] CANWEA, Wind by the numbers in Ontario. Canadian Wind Energy Association, 2014. Available from: http://canwea.ca/wind-energy/ontario/.
    [3] OSEA, A Green Energy Act for Ontario: Executive Summary. Ontario Sustainable Energy Association, 2009. Available from: http://www.ontario-sea.org/Storage/27/1890_GEA_ExecSum_Jan-09-09_print.pdf.
    [4] IESO, Energy Output By Fuel Type. Independent Energy System Operator, 2014. Available from: http://ieso-public.sharepoint.com/Pages/Power-Data/Supply.aspx.
    [5] Government of Ontario, Electricity prices are changing. Find out why. 2011. Available from: http://www.veridian.on.ca/pdf/newsletter_energy-plan_feb-2011.pdf.
    [6] Deignan B, Harvey E, Hoffman-Goetz L (2013) Fright factors about wind turbines and health in Ontario newspapers before and after the Green Energy Act. Health Risk Soc 15: 234-250. doi: 10.1080/13698575.2013.776015
    [7] Knopper LD, Ollson CA (2011) Health effects and wind turbines: A review of the literature. Environ Health 10: 78. doi: 10.1186/1476-069X-10-78
    [8] Watson I, Betts S, Rapaport E (2012) Determining appropriate wind turbine setback distances: Perspectives from municipal planners in the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec. Energ Policy 41: 782-789. doi: 10.1016/j.enpol.2011.11.046
    [9] Stats Canada, Population, urban and rural by province and territory. 2011. Available from: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/demo62g-eng.htm.
    [10] OWR, Setbacks. Ontario Wind Resistance. 2014. Available from: http://ontario-wind-resistance.org/setbacks/.
    [11] Heintzelman MD, Tuttle CM (2012) Values in the wind: A hedonic analysis of wind power facilities. Land Econ 88: 571-588.
    [12] Hoen B, Wiser R, Cappers P, et al. (2011) Wind energy facilities and residential properties: the effect of proximity and view on sales prices. J Real Estate Res 33: 279-316.
    [13] Krogh C, Gillis L, Kouwen N, et al. (2011) WindVOiCe, a self-reporting survey: adverse health effects, industrial wind turbines, and the need for vigilance monitoring. Bulletin Sci Technol Soc 31: 334-345. doi: 10.1177/0270467611412551
    [14] McMurtry RY (2011) Toward a case definition of adverse health effects in the environs of industrial wind turbines: facilitating a clinical diagnosis. Bulletin Sci Technol Soc 31: 316-320. doi: 10.1177/0270467611415075
    [15] Songsore E, Buzzelli M (2014) Social responses to wind energy development in Ontario: The influence of health risk perceptions and associated concerns. Energ Policy 69: 285-296. doi: 10.1016/j.enpol.2014.01.048
    [16] Walker C, Baxter J, Ouellette D (2014) Adding insult to injury: The development of psychosocial stress in Ontario wind turbine communities. Soc Sci Med [Epub ahead of print].
    [17] Gibbons S, Gone with the Wind: Valuing the Visual Impacts of Wind Turbines through House Prices (No. 0159). Spatial Economics Research Centre, LSE, 2014. Available from: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/58422/.
    [18] Municipal Property Assessment Corporation, Impact of Industrial Wind Turbines on Residential Property Assessment in Ontario. 2012. Available from: http://www.mpac.ca/pdf/ReportWindTurbines.pdf.
    [19] Hoen B, The impact of wind power projects on residential property values in the United States: A multi-site hedonic analysis. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2010. Available from: http://emp.lbl.gov/sites/all/files/PRESENTATION%20lbnl-2829e.pdf.
    [20] Mulvaney KK, Woodson P, Prokopy LS (2013) A tale of three counties: Understanding wind development in the rural Midwestern United States. Energ Policy 56: 322-330. doi: 10.1016/j.enpol.2012.12.064
    [21] Jordal-Jorgensen J, Social Assessment of Wind Power: Visual Effect and Noise from Windmills-Quantifying and Valuation. AKF-Institute of Local Government Studies, Denmark, 1996. Available from: http://www.akf/dk/eng/wind0.htm.
    [22] Farber S (1998) Undesirable facilities and property values: a summary of empirical studies. Ecol Econ 24: 1-14. doi: 10.1016/S0921-8009(97)00038-4
    [23] Van der Horst D (2007) NIMBY or not? Exploring the relevance of location and the politics of voiced opinions in renewable energy siting controversies. Energ policy 35: 2705-2714.
    [24] Atkinson-Palombo C, Hoen B, Relationship between Wind Turbines and Residential Property Values in Massachusetts. University of Connecticut and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2014. Available from: http://emp.lbl.gov/sites/all/files/lbnl-6371e_0.pdf.
    [25] Hoen B, Brown JP, Jackson T, et al. (2014) Spatial Hedonic Analysis of the Effects of US Wind Energy Facilities on Surrounding Property Values. J Real Estate Finan Econ 1-30.
    [26] Vyn RJ, McCullough RM (2014) The Effects of Wind Turbines on Property Values in Ontario: Does Public Perception Match Empirical Evidence?. Can J Agr Econ 62: 365-392. doi: 10.1111/cjag.12030
    [27] Sterzinger G, The effect of wind development on local property values. Renewable Energy Policy Project, 2003. Available from: http://dekalbcounty.org/PlanningZoningBuilding/FPL/Exhibit%20F%20%28part%205%29.pdf.
    [28] Poletti P (2005) A Real Estate Study of the Proposed White Oak Wind Energy Center Dodge and Fond Du Lac Counties, Wisconsin. Poletti and Associates. Prepared for Invenergy Wind LLC.
    [29] Sims S, Dent P (2007) Property stigma wind farms are just the latest fashion, J Property Investment & Finance 25: 626-651.
    [30] Lang C, Opaluch JJ, Sfinarolakis G (2014) The Windy City: Property Value Impacts of Wind Turbines in an Urban Setting. Energ Econ 44: 413-421. doi: 10.1016/j.eneco.2014.05.010
    [31] Stone A, Bachrach C, Jobe J, et al. (1999). The science of self-report: Implications for research and practice. Psychology Press.
    [32] Bond S (2008) Attitudes towards the development of wind farms in Australia. Environ Health 8: 19.
    [33] Baxter J, Morzaria R, Hirsch R (2013) A case-control study of support/opposition to wind turbines: Perceptions of health risk, economic benefits, and community conflict. Energ Policy 61: 931-943. doi: 10.1016/j.enpol.2013.06.050
    [34] Haughton J, Giuffre D, Barrett J, et al., An Economic Analysis of a Wind Farm in Nantucket Sound. Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University, 2004. Available from: http://www.beaconhill.org/BHIStudies/Windmills2004/WindFarmArmyCorps.pdf.
    [35] Kielisch K (2009) Wind Turbine Impact Study: Dodge and Fond Du Lac Counties, WI. Appraisal Group One. Prepared for Calumet County Citizens for Responsible Energy (CCCRE), Calumet County, WI.
    [36] Khatri M (2004) RICS Wind Farm Research: Impact of Wind Farms on the Value of Residential Property and Agricultural Land. Prepared for Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. London, UK.
    [37] Goldman JC (2006) A Study in the Impact of Windmills on Property Values in Tucker County, West Virginia for the Proposed Beech Ridge Energy, L.L.C. project in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Goldman Associates Inc. Prepared for Spilman Thomas & Battle, P.L.L.C., Charleston, WV. 51 pages. West Virginia Case No. 05-1590-E-CS.
    [38] Grover D, Economic Impacts of Wind Power in Kittitas County, WA. ECONorthwest, Prepared for Phoenix Economic Development Group, 2002. Available from: http://www.efsec.wa.gov/kittitaswind/adj/prefiled/edg/80-2.pdf.
    [39] Eilperin J, Climate Skeptic Group Works to Reverse Renewable Energy Mandates. The Washington Post, 2012. Available from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/climate-skeptic-group-works-to-reverse-renewable-energy-mandates/2012/11/24/124faaa0-3517-11e2-9cfa-e41bac906cc9_story.html.
    [40] Mistler S, Skeptics Blast Study Making Energy Claims. The Portland Press Herald, 2012. Available from: http://www.pressherald.com/2012/11/26/skeptics-blast-study-making-energy-claims_2012-11-27/
    [41] Nissenbaum M, Aramini J, Hanning C (2012) Effects of industrial wind turbine noise on sleep and health. Noise Health 14: 237-243. doi: 10.4103/1463-1741.102961
    [42] Lansink B, Case Studies: Diminution/Change in Price. Lansink Appraisals and Consulting, 2013. Availabe from: http://www.lansinkappraisals.com/downloads/CaseStudy_DiminutionInValue_InjuriousAffection_WindTurbines.pdf.
    [43] Baxter J (2009) A quantitative assessment of the insider/outsider dimension of the cultural theory of risk and place. J Risk Res 12: 771-791. doi: 10.1080/13669870802579806
    [44] Hill SD, Knott JD (2010) Too close for comfort: Social controversies surrounding wind farm noise setback policies in Ontario. Renewable Energy Law & Policy Rev. 153.
    [45] Kasperson RE, Renn O, Slovic P, et al. (1988) The social amplification of risk: A conceptual framework. Risk Anal 8:177-187. doi: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.1988.tb01168.x
    [46] Bosley P, Bosley K (1988) Public acceptability of California’s wind energy developments: three studies. Wind Eng 12: 311-318.
    [47] Gipe P (1995) Wind energy comes of age (Vol. 4). John Wiley & Sons.
    [48] Sims S, Dent P, Oskrochi G (2008) Modelling the impact of wind farms on house prices in the UK. Int J Strategic Property Manage 12: 251-269. doi: 10.3846/1648-715X.2008.12.251-269
    [49] Giorgi AP, Giorgi B (2008) Phenomenological psychology. The SAGE handbook of qualitative research in psychology, 165-179.
    [50] Pollio HR, Thompson CJ (1997) The phenomenology of everyday life: Empirical investigations of human experience. Cambridge University Press.
    [51] Saunders P (1989) The meaning of ‘home’in contemporary English culture. Housing Stud 4: 177-192. doi: 10.1080/02673038908720658
    [52] Saunders P (1986) Social Theory and the Urban Question. London: Hutchinson.
    [53] Saunders P (1984) Beyond housing classes: the sociological significance of private property rights in means of consumption. Int J Urban Regional Res 8: 202-227. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2427.1984.tb00608.x
    [54] Dupuis A, Thorns D (1998) Home, Home Ownership and the Search for Ontological Security. Sociological Rev 46: 24-47. doi: 10.1111/1467-954X.00088
    [55] Dunn JR (2000) Housing and health inequalities: review and prospects for research. Housing Stud 15: 341e366.
    [56] Howden-Chapman P (2004) Housing standards: a glossary of housing and health. J Epidemiol Commun H 58: 162e168.
    [57] Kearns A, Hiscock R, Ellaway A, et al. (2000) ‘Beyond four walls’. The psycho-social benefits of home: evidence from West Central Scotland. Housing Stud 15: 387e410.
    [58] Pevalin DJ, Taylor MP, Todd J (2008) The Dynamics of unhealthy housing in the UK: a panel data analysis. Housing Stud 23: 679e695.
    [59] Arku G, Luginaah I, Mkandawire P, et al. (2011) Housing and health in three contrasting neighbourhoods in Accra, Ghana. Soc Sci Med 72: 1864-1872. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.03.023
    [60] Benjamin DN, Stea D, Arén E (1995) The Home: Words, Interpretations, Meanings and Environments. Avebury.
    [61] Ellaway A, Macintyre S (1998) Does housing tenure predict health in the UK because it exposes people to different levels of housing related hazards in the home or its surroundings? Health Place 4: 141-150. doi: 10.1016/S1353-8292(98)00006-9
    [62] Evans GW, Wells NM, Moch A (2003) Housing and mental health: A review of the evidence and a methodological and conceptual critique. J Soc Iss 59: 475-500. doi: 10.1111/1540-4560.00074
    [63] Leavitt J, Loukaitou-Sideris A (1995) A Decent Home and a suitable environment-dilemmas of public-housing residents in Los Angeles. J Architect Plan Res 12: 221-239.
    [64] Luginaah I, Arku G, Baiden P (2010) Housing and health in Ghana: The psychosocial impacts of renting a home. Int J Environ Res Public Health 7: 528-545. doi: 10.3390/ijerph7020528
    [65] Mueller EJ, Tighe JR (2007) Making the case for affordable housing: Connecting housing with health and education outcomes. J Plan Literature 21: 371-385. doi: 10.1177/0885412207299653
    [66] Nettleton S, Burrows R (1998) Mortgage debt, insecure home ownership and health: an exploratory analysis. Sociol Health Illness 20: 731-753. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.00127
    [67] Dunn JR (2002) Housing and inequalities in health: a study of socioeconomic dimensions of housing and self-reported health from a survey of Vancouver residents. J Epidemiol Commun H 56: 671-681. doi: 10.1136/jech.56.9.671
    [68] Shaw M (2004) Housing and public health. Annu Rev Public Health 25: 397-418. doi: 10.1146/annurev.publhealth.25.101802.123036
    [69] Eser SG, Luloff AE (2003) Community controversy over a proposed limestone quarry. Soc Nat Resour 16: 793-806. doi: 10.1080/08941920309169
    [70] Krannich RS, Schreyer R, Cadez G (1988) Recreation impacts of western energy development. Soc Nat Resour 1: 31-43. doi: 10.1080/08941928809380636
    [71] Graber EE (1974) Newcomers and oldtimers: Growth and change in a mountain town. Rural Sociol 39: 503-513.
    [72] Mason SA, Dixon J, Mambulu F, et al. (2014) Management challenges of urban biosolids: narratives around facility siting in rural Ontario. J Environ Plan Manage [ahead-of-print] 1-21.
    [73] Smith MD, Krannich RS (2000) “Culture Clash” Revisited: Newcomer and Longer-Term Residents Attitudes Toward Land Use, Development, and Environmental Issues in Rural Communities in the Rocky Mountain West. Rural Sociol 65: 396-421.
    [74] Devine-Wright P, Howes Y (2010) Disruption to place attachment and the protection of restorative environments: A wind energy case study. J Environ Psychol 30: 271-280. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2010.01.008
    [75] Charmaz K (2003) Grounded theory: Obejectivist and constructivist methods. In: Denzin N.K., Lincoln Y.S., Strategies of qualitative inquiry, 2 Eds., London: Sage Publications, 249-291.
    [76] Strauss A, Corbin J (1997) Grounded theory in practice. London: Sage Publications.
    [77] Walker C, Baxter J, Ouellette D (2014) Beyond rhetoric to understanding determinants of wind turbine support and conflict in two Ontario, Canada communities. Environ Plan A 46: 730-745. doi: 10.1068/a130004p
    [78] Browne K (2005) Snowball sampling: using social networks to research non-heterosexual women. Int J Soc Res Meth 8: 47-60. doi: 10.1080/1364557032000081663
    [79] Heckathorn DD (2002) Respondent-driven sampling II: deriving valid population estimates from chain-referral samples of hidden populations. Soc Probs 49: 11. doi: 10.1525/sp.2002.49.1.11
    [80] Noy C (2008) Sampling knowledge: The hermeneutics of snowball sampling in qualitative research. Int J Soc Res Meth 11: 327-344. doi: 10.1080/13645570701401305
    [81] Cutter SL (1993) Living with risk: the geography of technological hazards. London: Edward Arnold, 214.
    [82] Gross C (2007) Community perspectives of wind energy in Australia: The application of a justice and community fairness framework to increase social acceptance. Energ Policy 35: 2727-2736. doi: 10.1016/j.enpol.2006.12.013
    [83] Cowell R, Bristow G, Munday M (2011) Acceptance, acceptability and environmental justice: the role of community benefits in wind energy development. J Environ Plan Manage 54: 539-557. doi: 10.1080/09640568.2010.521047
    [84] Devine-Wright P (2005) Beyond NIMBYism: towards an integrated framework for understanding public perceptions of wind energy. Wind Energ 8: 125-139. doi: 10.1002/we.124
    [85] Thomas W, Thomas D (1928) The Child in America: Behavior Problems and Progress. New York: Knopf.
    [86] Palmquist RB (1992) Valuing localized externalities. J Urban Econ 31: 59-68. doi: 10.1016/0094-1190(92)90032-G
    [87] Fiorino DJ (1990) Citizen participation and environmental risk: A survey of institutional mechanisms. Sci Technol Hum Value 15: 226-243. doi: 10.1177/016224399001500204
    [88] Renn O (1998) Three decades of risk research: accomplishments and new challenges. J Risk Res 1: 49-71. doi: 10.1080/136698798377321
    [89] Short L (2002) Wind power and English landscape identity. In: Pasqualetti M., Gipe P., Righter R., Wind power in view: Energy landscapes in a crowded world, New York: Academic Press, 43-58.
    [90] Woods M (2003) Conflicting environmental visions of the rural: windfarm development in Mid Wales. Sociologia Ruralis 43: 271-288. doi: 10.1111/1467-9523.00245
    [91] Chapman S, George AS, Waller K, et al. (2013) The pattern of complaints about Australian wind farms does not match the establishment and distribution of turbines: Support for the psychogenic, ‘communicated disease’ hypothesis. PloS One 8: e76584. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0076584
    [92] Chapman S (2012) The sickening truth about wind farm syndrome. New Sci 216: 26-27.
    [93] Krohn S, Damborg S (1999) On public attitudes towards wind power. Renew Energ 16: 954-960. doi: 10.1016/S0960-1481(98)00339-5
    [94] Johansson M, Laike T (2007) Intention to respond to local wind turbines: the role of attitudes and visual perception. Wind Energ 10: 435-451. doi: 10.1002/we.232
    [95] Jones CR, Eiser JR (2010) Understanding ‘local’ opposition to wind development in the UK: How big is a backyard?. Energ Policy 38: 3106-3117. doi: 10.1016/j.enpol.2010.01.051
    [96] Health Canada. Health Canada Wind Turbine Noise and Health Study Design Consultation. Environmental and Workplace Health. Government of Canada, 2013. Available from: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/consult/_2013/wind_turbine-eoliennes/index-eng.php.
  • Reader Comments
  • © 2014 the Author(s), licensee AIMS Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
通讯作者: 陈斌, bchen63@163.com
  • 1. 

    沈阳化工大学材料科学与工程学院 沈阳 110142

  1. 本站搜索
  2. 百度学术搜索
  3. 万方数据库搜索
  4. CNKI搜索
AIMS Energy
1.8 3.8

Metrics

Article views(5819) PDF downloads(1084) Cited by(16)

Preview PDF
Download XML
Export Citation
Article outline

Figures and Tables

Tables(3)

Other Articles By Authors

Related pages

Tools

/

DownLoad:  Full-Size Img  PowerPoint
Return
Return

Catalog