Abstract
Wind-power development in the U.S. occurs primarily on private land, producing royalties for landowners through private contracts with wind-farm operators. Texas, the U.S. leader in wind-power production with well-documented support for wind power, has virtually all of its ~12 GW of wind capacity sited on private lands. Determining the spatial distribution of royalty payments from wind energy is a crucial first step to understanding how renewable power may alter land-based livelihoods of some landowners, and, as a result, possibly encourage land-use changes. We located ~1700 wind turbines (~2.7 GW) on 241 landholdings in Nolan and Taylor counties, Texas, a major wind-development region. We estimated total royalties to be ~$11.5 million per year, with mean annual royalty received per landowner per year of $47,879 but with significant differences among quintiles and between two sub-regions. Unequal distribution of royalties results from land-tenure patterns established before wind-power development because of a “property advantage,” defined as the pre-existing land-tenure patterns that benefit the fraction of rural landowners who receive wind turbines. A “royalty paradox” describes the observation that royalties flow to a small fraction of landowners even though support for wind power exceeds 70 percent.
Highlights
Explaining how biofuels affect land change is a key research theme in hybrid land change science that aims to incorporate insights from political ecology [1], but linkages between land change and utility-scale renewable energy are poorly understood
With 12,214 MW of installed capacity, Texas is the leading U.S state, where 10 percent of its electricity comes from wind farms—virtually all sited on private lands—in the state’s western region [4]
Total royalties for the two-county study region were estimated at ~$11.5 million per year, slightly less than the $12.264 million per year estimate of royalties accrued from 2500 MW installed capacity, which assumed a 35 percent capacity factor (CF), $40/MWh wholesale electricity price, and 4 percent royalty rate [36]
Summary
Explaining how biofuels affect land change is a key research theme in hybrid land change science that aims to incorporate insights from political ecology [1], but linkages between land change and utility-scale renewable energy are poorly understood. The rapid expansion of wind-power development in the U.S, primarily on private landholdings in a region from Texas to Minnesota, has produced unknown outcomes for livelihoods and land uses through the production of royalties for landowners who make private contracts with wind-farm operators. More than 97 percent of the ~60 GW of installed wind power capacity in the U.S has been built on private land [2,3]. With 12,214 MW of installed capacity, Texas is the leading U.S state, where 10 percent of its electricity comes from wind farms—virtually all sited on private lands—in the state’s western region [4]. Knowledge of the spatial distribution of royalty payments from wind energy is a crucial first step to understanding how income from renewable power may alter land-based livelihoods and may encourage land-use changes
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