Wind Turbine Proximity and Health: Longitudinal Evidence from U.S. Households

Niklas Rott, Douglas Almond and Osea Giuntella

No 35131, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Rapid growth of wind energy plays a key role in global efforts to reduce carbon emissions, yet public concerns persist about its potential health effects, particularly through noise exposure. While some studies and media reports suggest that wind turbines may contribute to sleep disturbances, anxiety, and even suicide, existing evidence remains limited and inconclusive. This study combines geolocated data on turbines from the U.S. Wind Turbine Database with longitudinal survey data on over 120,000 households (2011–2023) and consumer purchasing records to assess whether proximity to wind turbines affects mental and physical health. We examine a wide range of outcomes, including depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, headaches, and use of sleep aids and painkillers. Comparing households before and after nearby turbine installations, we find no detectable adverse health effects from turbine exposure at typical exposure distances. While we cannot rule out small effects, our confidence intervals exclude moderate-to-large impacts, suggesting that fears about substantial health impacts are not borne out in population-level data. Other disamenities such as noise, shadow flicker, and visual intrusion may still affect quality of life even absent measurable health impacts.

JEL-codes: I1 Q50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-04
Note: EEE EH
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w35131.pdf (application/pdf)
Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html. Free access is also available to older working papers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35131

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w35131
The price is Paper copy available by mail.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().