Farmers in Brazil have found out the hard way that signing a lease for wind turbines didn’t bring them riches—quite the opposite

September 20, 2026

“If I’d known it was going to be like this, I wouldn’t have signed the contract,” says a farmer in Brazil,who has not lost the use of dozens of acres on his small farm to wind turbines.

Farmers have learned that signing a lease for wind turbines meant the wind power developer would take more land than they originally promised—way more—and that farming activities would be restricted.

Here is an excerpt from an article in this weekend’s The Guardian:

While the country’s ambition is to be the ‘Saudi Arabia of green energy’, communities in the north-east are bearing the cost in diminished health and livelihoods.

Beneath the power lines cutting across Antonio de Souza’s property in Serra do Mel, in north-east Brazil’s Rio Grande do Norte state, rows of cashew trees once stood – until the clean energy company ordered them to be cut down.

De Souza cannot plant crops in the affected area and the tractor cannot be driven through it in bad weather, as the driver risks an electric shock. Cattle, another source of local income, are forbidden from grazing near the cables.

The contract says the infrastructure occupies one hectare (2.5 acres); yet, the farmer counters, four hectares have become wasteland on a 50-hectare plot that was the family’s livelihood.

The story of Serra do Mel is one often heard in places where wind has provided energy and development, a model now moving offshore. But still rarely discussed is how the benefits can also harm local communities’ health and livelihoods.

“If I’d known it would be like this – that I’d be prevented from planting and harvesting – I wouldn’t have signed that contract with them,” says De Souza, who adds that he is not opposed to wind power.

When representatives of the French renewable energy multinational Voltalia arrived in his village after a year of drought, De Souza signed the contract, as did almost everyone in the area. The promise was a monthly income of 3,000 to 5,000 reais (£430-£720), adjusted annually like a salary, without harming crops.

A decade later, the farmer is leading a public civil lawsuit against Voltalia, filed in May 2025 by three rural workers’ organisations, with a favourable assessment from the public prosecutor’s office and the public defender’s office, which provides legal aid, monitors human rights and has an ombudsman role.

The people of Serra do Mel are not calling for the company to leave but they do want to know how much the energy generated on their land yields and to receive what they say was promised to them.

They also want to regain the right to retire as farmers, which is at risk because they can no longer work their holdings – land the Brazilian state

Data from the Primary Healthcare Information System (Sisab), compiled in the Lavoro Institute’s report, shows a significant rise of people in Serra do Mel complaining of anxiety and panic disorders, sleep disorders and hearing problems from 2022 onwards – when most of the municipality’s 36 windfarms came into operation. In Poço Branco – a municipality similar across all indicators except the turbines – the trend moves the opposite way.

Brazil has no federal regulation stipulating a minimum distance between turbines and people’s homes. While France requires such equipment to be at least 500 metres from houses, Relvani de Brito lives 250 metres away from a turbine. This is what the “Brazilian windpower miracle” is built on.

“During the day, you can barely hear it,” says De Brito. “At night it’s worse because everything is quiet, and that’s when the racket starts.

“I take medication for anxiety. I don’t sleep at night; I wake up at one o’clock, right on the dot,” she says.

In July 2024, at a packed meeting, hundreds of farmers voted to take legal action against the company. The civil class action, filed in May 2025 by a coalition of three workers’ organisations, seeks compensation for collective non-pecuniary damage for health problems or unfair contracts; the suspension of the four windfarms still under construction; the relocation of existing turbines; and a corrective environmental impact assessment, with community participation.

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Ontario landowners are not allowed to speak out this way as the wind power contracts typically include a Non Disclsure Agreement or NDA which means they cannot speak out about any details f their contracts. Privately, we have heard complaints about loss of use, companies putting more turbines on land than they said, restrictions on ordinary farming activities, and other problems.

Please see the Ontario Federation of Agriculture document on things to consider before signing a lease for any renewables project.