State and local economic impacts from wind energy projects: Texas case study Michael C. Slattery a,n , Eric Lantz b , Becky L. Johnson c a Institute for Environmental Studies and School of Geology, Energy, and the Environment, Texas Christian University, PO Box 298830, Fort Worth, TX 76129, USA b National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd, Golden, CO 80401, USA c Institute for Environmental Studies and School of Geology, Energy, and the Environment, Texas Christian University, PO Box 298830, Fort Worth, TX 76129, USA article info Article history: Received 9 May 2011 Accepted 23 September 2011 Keywords: Wind energy Texas Economic impacts abstract This paper uses the Jobs and Economic Development Impacts (JEDI) model to estimate economic impacts from 1398 MW of wind power development in four counties in west Texas. Project-specific impacts are estimated at the local level (i.e., within a 100-mile radius around the wind farms) and at the state level. The primary economic policy question addressed is how investment in wind energy affects the state and local communities where the wind farms are built. During the four-year construction phase approximately 4100 FTE (full time equivalents) jobs were supported with turbine and supply chain impacts accounting for 58% of all jobs generated. Total lifetime economic activity to the state from the projects equated to more than $1.8 billion, or $1.3 million per MW of installed capacity. The total economic activity to the local communities was also substantial, equating to nearly $730 million over the assumed 20-year life cycle of the farms, or $0.52 million per MW of installed capacity. Given the current level of impacts observed, and the potential for increased impacts via greater utilization of instate manufacturing capacity and the development of trained wind industry specific laborers, Texas appears to be well positioned to see increasing impacts from continued wind development. & 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Wind power is recognized as an important energy resource throughout the world. In several scenarios of future electricity costs, wind power is forecast to produce electricity at lower costs than that of biomass and solar-pv for decades (e.g., EREC, 2008; de Vries et al., 2007). Wind energy has also been recognized as one of the most environmentally benign sources of electricity generation: it causes no emissions of harmful pollutants, including the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide; does not require mining or drilling for fuel; does not cause radioactive or hazardous wastes; and does not use water for steam generation or cooling (Brittan, 2002; Schiermeier et al., 2008; Warren et al., 2005). Because the environmental benefits of wind energy appear significant, public support for expanding wind energy development is often high (Swofford and Slattery, 2010). Social and political support for wind energy has turned it into one of the fastest growing sources of power generation in the world. 1 Growth in the U.S. achieved 25–50% per year between 2005 and 2009 (Fig. 1), and wind energy now supplies approximately 2.5% of annual U.S. electricity consumption (Wiser and Bolinger, 2010). Interconnec- tion queues around the U.S. suggest that planning for new wind development continues at a strong pace (Wiser and Bolinger, 2010). 2 However, the dramatic growth in wind power development has raised a number of challenges for the industry. For wind energy to provide 20% of U.S. electricity needs by 2030, an energy scenario modeled by the U.S. DOE (DOE, 2008), challenges in the areas of technology, manufacturing, and transmission and grid operations must be overcome. Moreover, existing federal policies expire in 2012 creating federal policy uncertainty that has the potential to affect sustained growth rates observed in the recent past. Additional industry challenges include concerns over potential impacts to wild- life, particularly birds and bats (Arnett et al., 2008; Kunz et al., 2007), visual and noise impacts on communities (Devine-Wright, 2005a, b; Johansson and Laike, 2007; Pedersen and Wye, 2007; Pedersen et al. 2009; Swofford and Slattery, 2010), and the ability to more clearly quantify the system-wide environmental and emissions impacts from wind energy (Sims et al., 2003). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol Energy Policy 0301-4215/$ - see front matter & 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2011.09.047 n Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 817 257 7506. E-mail address: m.slattery@tcu.edu (M.C. Slattery). 1 Recent growth has resulted from concern over climate change, energy security, the cost of fossil fuels, as well as from policy support which has made wind a viable investment opportunity in specific markets (Wiser and Bolinger, 2010). 2 Capacity queuing for interconnection in regional transmission operator (RTO), independent system operator (ISO), and utility systems is on the order of 300 GW, far exceeding interconnection requests for all other power generation resources in the U.S. While it is likely that only a fraction of these projects will be built this demonstrates that interest in continued wind development is substantial (Wiser and Bolinger, 2010). Energy Policy 39 (2011) 7930–7940