Wind and Solar Create More Jobs When They're Locally Owned, Report Finds

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http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/26578-wind-and-solar-create-more-jobs-when-theyre-locally-owned-report-finds

Farrell’s report presents striking data from an earlier study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which showed that wind power projects often provide twice as many jobs when they are locally owned. Farrell provides this example:

A 20-megawatt wind energy project built in Minnesota but owned by Spanish firm Iberdrola would add $20 million to the state’s economy and create about 10 long-term jobs. But if that same project were owned by Minnesota farmers or Kandiyohi Power Cooperative, it would create 20 long-term jobs and generate as much as $68 million in economic activity for the state.

The benefit to a local economy depends on various aspects of a project, such as its size, location, and the amount of local labor and materials used.

Why do locally owned projects create more jobs per megawatt? The National Renewable Energy Laboratory gives three reasons: They are more likely to use local labor and materials, provide benefits to local shareholders, and borrow from local banks.

These economic benefits could also be the reason that neighboring communities are more likely to support renewable energy projects when they are locally owned. Farrell points to a study published in the journal Energy Policy in 2011 that looked at two German towns, each with a wind farm on its outskirts. The locally owned wind farm received far friendlier reception from neighbors than the absentee-owned wind farm.

Farrell says that seeing locally owned projects get built changes residents’ impression of renewables and encourages them to think about how they can use renewable energy in their own lives.

“They realize this is real; it’s not a fanciful notion,” Farrell said. “People ask themselves ‘I wonder if I could do that?’”

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