North Stormont property value loss in the millions from wind farm: Wind Concerns Ontario

Margaret Benke of Concerned Citizens of North Stormont with a map of homes in the Nation Rise project area. [Photo: Wind Concerns Ontario]
December 5, 2018
Homeowners in North Stormont stand to make a big sacrifice to “green” energy if the proposed “Nation Rise” wind power project is constructed, says Wind Concerns Ontario, a coalition of community groups and Ontario families.
Using research completed recently by a land economist with the University of Guelph and published in Land Economics, Wind Concerns calculates that overall, the property loss for houses within 5 km of the 33 planned turbines could be $87.8 million. Using other research that is less conservative, however, the property value loss could be more than $140 million.
Research done in 2016 by the partnership of Clarkson University and Nanos Research on U.S properties with a view of Wolfe Island wind turbines showed an overall property value loss of 15 per cent for homes “with a view” of the turbines. Older research done by Ontario real estate appraiser Ben Lansink in 2012 found a more dramatic reduction for properties closest to turbines, an average loss of 37 per cent.
University of Guelph associate professor Richard Vyn found a property value loss in communities opposed to wind power projects of 8.98 percent for houses within 2 km of turbines, and 8.62 per cent for properties within 4 km, post-construction of turbines.
For the Nation Rise power project, there are 828 properties within 1,500 metres of turbines according to the wind power developer, Portugal-based EDP, and approximately 2,500 residences within 2 to 5 km of the turbines, according to community group Concerned Citizens of North Stormont.
The houses within 1,500 metres of a turbine in the “Nation Rise” project could see a loss of $21.8 million using professor Vyn’s estimate, $37 million according to Clarkson-Nanos, or as much as $91 million in losses using Mr. Lansink’s calculations.
The community group has appealed the project approval on the basis of environmental, safety and health concerns, and is worried about the effect of turbine construction on the water supply, which could be an additional factor in property value loss.
Wind power proponents and Ontario’s municipal assessment agency have maintained that there is no appreciable property value loss, but an energy commentator wrote in Forbes magazine in 2015 that “there’s a heavily funded public relations machine to make Americans think that wind power doesn’t impact property values.”
“Renewable energy and the ‘environment’ are big businesses and they include not just energy producing companies but also various agencies, interest groups, and even university researchers,” Jude Clemente wrote. “Their grant money and careers are at stake.”
Clemente added that “Many members of the Real Estate and Appraisal businesses, however, have been clear that wind power DOES impact property values … it would seem to me that these groups have no vested interest in supporting wind power or not supporting it.”
A decision is expected on the Nation Rise project appeal in the first week of January, 2019.
Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) says Ontario has an adequate supply of power until 2035. The 20-year contract for the Nation Rise project will cost Ontario more than $450 million.
 

#properties Value at $300K each Estimated loss – Vyn 8.8% Estimated loss-Clarkson-Nanos/Lansink 15%
3,328 $998.4 Million $87.8 million $140.7 million

 
Wind Concerns Ontario www.windconcernsontario.ca
Sources
Richard Vyn, “Property Value Impacts of Wind Turbines and the Influence of Attitudes toward Wind Energy”, Land Economics. http://le.uwpress.org/content/94/4/496.abstract?etoc
Clarkson-Nanos: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/news03/clarkson-study-henderson-could-lose-40-million-in-property-value-from-galloo-island-wind-project–20160405
Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/judeclemente/2015/09/23/do-wind-turbines-lower-property-values/#4ea0a2d148cb
Lansink: http://www.lansinkappraisals.com/downloads/CaseStudy_DiminutionInValue_InjuriousAffection_WindTurbines.pdf

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13 Comments

  • Sommer
    Posted December 5, 2018 11:29 am 0Likes

    Take a look at this piece, written long before the K2 Wind in Huron County was allowed to site turbines close to and in some cases completely surrounding peoples’ homes. Some of these residents were fourth generation farmers. Some had enjoyed the safety and security of their homes for over 40 years. Despite information like this in the public domain, the Reeve and Councillors ushered in this severely distressing incursion of the most densely sited turbines in the largest wind power station in Ontario.
    http://www.aweo.org/Martin.html
    Notice the connections being suggested by this writer to the Enron scandal.

  • Sommer
    Posted December 5, 2018 11:32 am 0Likes

    In Chapter 11, the writer says:
    “In Enron and Wall Street economics, the value of your community — a value that has now shifted to Enron-spawned wind companies and Wall Street banker control — is something that can be traded, bought and sold, reassigned, financially speculated in, financially gambled with, sold as hedge funds, investments, preferred stock.”

  • Sommer
    Posted December 5, 2018 11:38 am 0Likes

    In Chapter 6, the author likens what is going on with this current ‘land grab’ to the what happened in England during the ‘Enclosure’.
    Enclosure – Wikipedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclosure
    Enclosure. Enclosure (sometimes inclosure) was the legal process in England of consolidating (enclosing) small landholdings into larger farms. … The process of enclosure began to be a widespread feature of the English agricultural landscape during the 16th century.

  • Sommer
    Posted December 5, 2018 1:15 pm 0Likes

    Why were turbines allowed to be sited in intense arrays/clusters surrounding peoples’ homes and neighbourhoods in rural Ontario?
    Why is this new government allowing the injustice to continue?
    Take a look at this information:
    Wind turbine presence reduces property values for distances of up to 3 km
    “We present the results of a large-scale analysis on how on-shore and off-shore wind turbines affect the property prices of nearby single family residential and vacation homes in Denmark. We find that on-shore wind turbines negatively affect the price of surrounding properties to a distance of three kilometers. The negative impact increases with the number of wind turbines at a declining marginal rate but declines with distance. In the case of off-shore wind turbine farms, we do not find a significant effect of having an off-shore wind farm in view from a property itself or from the nearest beach, likely because the closest off-shore turbine is 9 km from the closest traded home. … The results suggest that ceteris paribus, wind turbine farms should be built quite far away from residential areas with turbines gathered in larger wind farms rather than installed as single turbines.” (Jensen et al., 2018)

  • Richard Mann
    Posted December 5, 2018 9:45 pm 0Likes

    Turbines must be turned off immediately due to known, documented, and on going health harm to citizens living nearby.
    On October 28, 2018 I wrote to Christine Elliot, MPP, Minister of Health and Long Term Care, requesting an urgent meeting to address known health harm from Industrial Wind Turbines.
    I have not heard back.
    The letter and details of my research and advocacy on this issue are on my web page,
    https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~mannr/Wind_Turbines.html
    Richard Mann
    Associate Professor
    School of Computer Science
    Faculty of Mathematics
    University of Waterloo

  • Stan Thayer
    Posted December 9, 2018 9:41 am 0Likes

    Richard, the turbines will not be turned off just as the pharmaceutical industry will not stop making drugs that kill people.
    Same investors, same motives, and the rollover profits are just too good.
    Meanwhile, politicians can be voted in or voted out.
    Sommer, you better sit down!
    Some of the IWT’s are in a proposed local area distribution grid that has not been defined completely as yet. Once the grids are available they will be auctioned off like any other commodity. Not unlike the “Public Utility Commission” of old that were sold to Hydro One. To follow the proceedings subscribe to the IESO bulletins available from the website.
    The politicians that are not involved usually are not in office long.
    Also, the affected properties will be sequestered for generations holding or lowering their evaluations for future takeovers.
    Hope I have clarified some issues!
    Stan

    • Sommer
      Posted December 10, 2018 11:14 am 0Likes

      Pessimism and powerlessness are not an option.
      Innocent peoples’ lives are being seriously impacted.
      This is Ontario.

    • Richard Mann
      Posted December 10, 2018 7:10 pm 0Likes

      Stan Thayer writes: “Richard, the turbines will not be turned off just as the pharmaceutical industry will not stop making drugs that kill people.”
      This analogy simply does not work. First, pharmaceutical treatment is voluntarily, taken as a decision by a patient and their doctor. Exposure is not forced on people as wind turbines are. Second, there are in fact reporting and surveillance mechanisms for pharmaceuticals. Adverse effects/ reactions are reported. Warnings can be added, and in extreme cases, pharmaceuticals can be taken off the market. In contrast, warnings from Wind turbines have been ignored. Some would say they have been suppressed.
      Richard Mann
      University of Waterloo

  • Sommer
    Posted December 10, 2018 12:55 pm 0Likes

    Governance of IESO
    The IESO is a not-for-profit corporate entity established in 1998 by the Electricity Act of Ontario. On January 1, 2015, through amendments to the Electricity Act, the IESO merged with the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to bring together real-time operations of the electricity grid and long-term planning, competitive procurement and energy-efficiency programs. The IESO is governed by an independent Board of Directors, with a Chair and Directors appointed by the Government of Ontario. All fees and licences to operate are set by the Ontario Energy Board, and the IESO operates independently of all other participants in the electricity market.
    ” The IESO is governed by an independent Board of Directors, with a Chair and Directors appointed by the Government of Ontario. ”
    Is it time to get rid of the Chair and Directors?

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  • Steve Topper
    Posted June 5, 2020 7:05 am 0Likes

    A lot of people had identified this impact on the properties when they had announced the project. They should have voiced their concerns before the project officially began.

    • Wind Concerns Ontario
      Posted June 19, 2020 3:00 pm 0Likes

      The basis on which to appeal relates to “serious and irreversible harm” to the environment and “serious harm” to human health. The Green Energy Act set this up as an almost impossible test to meet. There was no basis on which to appeal or object based on property value, energy poverty, economic impacts or other factors.

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