What blows in with the wind?

Dakshina De Silva, Robert P. McComb and Anita R. Schiller

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: The shift toward renewable forms of energy for electricity generation in the electricity generation industry has clear implications for the spatial distribution of generating plant. Traditional forms of generation are typically located close to the load or population centers, while wind and solar-powered generation must be located where the energy source is found. In the case of wind, this has meant significant new investment in wind plant in primarily rural areas that have been in secular economic decline. This paper investigates the localized economic impacts of the rapid increase in wind power capacity at the county level in Texas. Unlike Input-Output impact analysis that relies primarily on levels of inputs to estimate gross impacts, we use traditional econometric methods to estimate net localized impacts in terms of employment, personal income, and property tax base. While we find evidence that both direct and indirect employment impacts are modest, significant increases in per capita income accompany wind power development. County and school property tax rolls also realize important benefits from the local siting of utility scale wind power.

Keywords: Wind energy; industry growth; per capita income; tax base. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H2 H23 H7 H72 Q4 Q42 Q48 R1 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-12-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-reg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/51915/1/MPRA_paper_51915.pdf original version (application/pdf)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/59663/9/MPRA_paper_59663.pdf revised version (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: What Blows in with the Wind? (2016)
Working Paper: What blows in with the wind? (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:51915

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