As wind and solar projects are proposed in more populated rural areas, they hit more opposition; Kansas is an example

Wind turbines dot the landscape in Waverly, Kansas. (Photo by Dominick Williams, The Wall Street Journal)

Many people like the idea of green energy, but as the federal government's high-dollar push on wind and solar ekes closer to neighborhoods, some residents are saying, "No," or "Not on my land," or even "Over my dead body," reports Jennifer Hiller of The Wall Street Journal. "Plenty of Kansans do want to host projects—wind is already the biggest source of electricity in the state [but] many Kansans are girding for a long fight."

Douglas County (Wikipedia map)

Gerry Coffman lives in Douglas County, a rural community about an hour from Kansas City. She is one resident who said "No." Hiller writes, "She turned down a wind lease last year on a farm that has been in her family since 1866. Someone knocked on her door a few months later, paperwork in hand, and offered $6,000 to hang a wind-power transmission line across her land. If she agreed to store construction equipment, she stood to make an additional $4,000. . . . Coffman doesn't want to see the native forest or prairie disturbed and thinks the industrial nature of towering wind turbines would change the community for the worse if a proposed project were built."

Community debates often turn sour. Hiller reports, "Coffman has attended a series of contentious public meetings over several months as the county considers revising regulations for wind-energy development. . . . County-by-county battles are raging as wind and solar projects balloon in size, edge closer to cities and encounter mounting pushback in communities. . . . Even in states with a long history of building renewables, developers don't know if they can get local permits or how long it might take." Coffman told Hiller, "A year ago we were a nice, quiet neighborhood."

Kansas is among several states where citizens in more populated areas have opted to block or restrict some green-energy builds. Hiller explains, "In Kansas, wind power grew rapidly for two decades . . . ranking it third in the nation. But at least five counties in more-populous eastern Kansas have recently placed moratoriums or bans on new wind or solar projects, joining 18 others that already restricted wind development to preserve the tallgrass prairie ecosystem. . . . In Iowa, a 2022 study of wind ordinances found that 16 of 99 counties had prohibitive rules or a ban against new projects, most of them approved in the previous four years. . . . Developers won't even consider projects on around half to three-quarters of land with good wind resources, according to a study by the nonprofit research firm ClearPath and consulting group LucidCatalyst."

Despite demand, private investment dollars, and the federal government's expected $3 trillion green-energy investment, "U.S. clean power installations dipped 16% last year and 12% over 2020, according to the American Clean Power Association. It was the worst year for land-based wind installations since 2018," Hiller reports. "Economies of scale have pushed solar and wind farm size to hundreds or thousands of acres. . . . . In Michigan, a typical solar project once covered 60 acres but now would take up 1,200, said Sarah Mills, a senior project manager at the University of Michigan's Graham Sustainability Institute. Mills said they may need to get smaller—and more expensive—to be more socially acceptable. Mills told Hiller, "What you're asking our rural community to host is way more than our fair share."

Laurie Shuck, another Douglas County resident, "recently purchased a stack of 'no trespassing' signs to post around her fences to try to keep out representatives offering wind leases," Hiller reports. "One late afternoon as light faded at her farm, the moon rose in the east and a flock of geese honked overhead. She paused to watch. Shuck said she and her brother would lease land for wind projects, 'over our dead bodies. . . . I was here first.'"