Sharing the Wind
| Author | Troy A. Rule |
| Position | Associate Professor, University of Missouri School of Law |
| Pages | 30-33 |
Page 30 ❧ THE ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM Copyright © 2010, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.
Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, Sept./Oct. 2010
Sharing the Wind
To maximize energy production, there is a growing need for regulation
to govern conflicts over turbine siting. Policymakers have an opportunity
to devise efficient, equitable rules to govern these disputes
Commercial wind turbines create a wake of tur-
bulent air (like the wake behind a boat) that can
diminish the energy productivity of other turbines
behind them for up to half a mile. Disagreements
can arise whenever the wake generated by a wind
turbine reduces the profitability of a neighbor’s tur-
bine site immediately downwind.
Imagine two landowners who both plan to install
a turbine in a gusty area near the border of their ad-
joining parcels, each on either side of the property
line. On most properties that are suitable for com-
mercial energy production, winds blow in the same
general direction most of the time such that one
of two adjacent parcels is effectively downwind of
the other. If both landowners were to install their
turbines, the wake from the upwind turbine would
render the downwind one unprofitable. Unsure
about who would prevail in a lawsuit over this wake
interference problem, the upwind landowner might
reasonably choose not to install any turbine in the
border area. e owner of the downwind parcel
might similarly abandon its plans to install a tur-
bine, concluding that the risk of future installations
on the upwind parcel was too great. As a result, no
turbines would be installed in this windy area and
thousands of megawatt-hours of socially valuable
renewable energy production would be lost.
In an effort to prevent interference conflicts, a
few local governments have imposed wide, wake-
based turbine setback restrictions on parcels in areas
zoned for commercial wind energy development.
ese setbacks, unfortunately, come at a high cost,
F or centuries, wind has been a valuable
source of energy for humankind. Long be-
fore the advent of modern electric power,
windmills were pumping water, grinding
grain, and sawing timber. e expeditions
of Columbus and Magellan and all the great explorers
were fueled by wind, as were the freight-bearing clip-
per ships that tied together global markets through
the end of the nineteenth century. But never before
the advent of modern turbines has wind been viewed
as an income-producing asset, nor as a commodity.
Landowners today are increasingly selling or leas-
ing to others the right to utilize the wind flowing
across their land to generate electric power. Modern
wind energy leases routinely provide for thousands
of dollars in annual rent payments to property own-
ers. For the first time in history, the right to capture
wind in some areas of the country has become mar-
ketable and highly lucrative.
Unfortunately, like other assets that are bought
and sold, rights in the wind can also be the sub-
ject of ownership disputes. As energy development
continues at a rapid pace, competition for the wind
will grow ever more common. In the coming years,
courts and legislators will be tasked with formulating
laws to govern disputes over wind rights.
is article describes landowner conflicts over the
wind and explores possible legislative approaches to
addressing them. It focuses on disputes arising in the
context of commercial wind energy development,
where developers compete with each other for scarce
wind resources.
Troy A. Rule, Associate
Professor, Universit y of Missouri
School of Law.
To continue reading
Request your trial