Economic Impacts of Wind Power Development in the United States

Abstract

Renewable energy is becoming a more significant energy resource in the United States, and in particular, wind power is one of the fastest growing renewable energy sources today. Previous studies conducted have focused on the aggregate economic impacts of increasing wind energy. Paralleling the paper of Brown et. Al (2012) and building on its methodology, this paper uses panel data to conduct an econometric analysis of the state-level economic impacts of wind power development in select states from the West and Northeast regions of the United States during the period from 2006-2010. We find that wind power development is statistically significant on unemployment, personal income, and property values, but find a small positive correlation between wind power capacity and unemployment, suggesting that the net effects of wind power additions may be negative.