- [Narrator] A wave of development
is rippling through the windy
and sunny parts of the United States.
In the Midwest, newer and bigger wind turbines
are rankling the locals,
and fights over solar farms have broken out
in California and Virginia as well.
In these fights property rights advocates
and environmentalists have joined forces
to push back against clean energy.
New research says that if this movement continues,
it could stall the country's green energy transition.
- We used to think that there's sufficient land
for the wind that is needed,
but now we believe that there could be
some land use conflicts that would actually hit
some of the limits to wind development.
- [Narrator] The fights about solar and wind
are all about how land is used.
In several parts of rural America,
locals say that the installations
are dominating the landscapes.
- So these projects are as big as they are
because that's what makes them as cheap as they are.
- [Narrator] Samantha Gross,
who studies energy security at the Brookings Institution
says that, "Most US wind turbines are roughly 500 feet tall
and are spaced more than half a mile apart.
These installations can be seen for miles."
- You have projects being put in place in those areas
where people aren't used to seeing a lot of development,
and they're there because that's where they need to be,
but they can generate public opposition
because they're a real change to the use of the land.
- [Narrator] Researchers say that,
"It takes at least 10 times as much land
to develop renewables when compared to fossil fuels."
- Well, if you think about making electricity
from natural gas and the kind of land footprint that has,
it's about one 10th of the land area, per unit of power
that you have for a wind facility,
You can do other things with that land.
You can farm underneath it, have it for pasture land,
but still that land will be occupied by the wind facility.
- [Narrator] Despite these land use issues,
financiers and leaders in Washington
are pouring money into new green energy projects.
- What we as a country should do
is make smart, sustainable investments
with appropriate financing
to make this nation more productive,
to advance America's leadership in clean energy,
to win the jobs of the future,
or mitigate the threat of climate change.
- [Narrator] The high level of interest in clean energy
is causing controversy as the rubber
hits the road out in the country.
Several states in the US wind quarter
are grappling with how to deploy
more renewables for the grid.
The state of Indiana started to experiment
with utility scale wind power in 2008, as of 2021,
40 of the state's 92 counties
have some amount of wind or solar development,
but a groundswell of activism
has taken over county and state level politics.
Citizens across Indiana have campaigned
against new clean energy developments,
arguing that the structures are an economic scam
that will be a nuisance to public health,
biodiversity, and local property values.
The movement gained influence over the years.
As of 2021, more than 30 Indiana counties
have restricted the development of utility scale renewables.
Many use setback requirements,
which determine how far away projects must be removed
from existing properties.
This tactic can keep turbines away from homes
which reduces the flickering shadows
and noise created by the installations.
But some residents would like to see the bans
on renewables come to an end.
- There are folks who were saying,
"Wait a minute, my county lost
millions of dollars in tax revenue."
- [Narrator] State legislators like Ed Soliday,
a Republican representing Valparaiso, Indiana,
say that the restrictions may harm the region's economy.
In 2021, Soliday wrote and introduced House Bill 1381,
which would have prevented counties
from issuing outright bans on wind and solar projects.
- The one thing we know for sure
is there's a market for renewable energy,
and we can either pay ever rising transmission costs
to buy it from someone else,
or we can participate in the market here in Indiana.
- [Narrator] The bill introduced by Soliday
died in the state's 2021 legislative session
as locals pushed back.
He says a similar battle is unfolding over solar energy.
- That same group that opposed wind
has now come up with health arguments,
visual arguments against solar panels.
And most of those will not stand up to peer review.
- It's important that these projects are designed
to be serving the community as a whole.
Because if they're not designed that way,
it can lead to downstream flooding.
It can lead to resentment and therefore antagonism,
and therefore opposition to these projects.
- [Narrator] Jesse Kharbanda is the executive director
at the Hoosier Environmental Council.
His group supports renewable energy
but they argue that locals should maintain control
over how development is managed.
- By the end of the decade,
the overall land footprint of the solar farms in Indiana
could be of the size
of the entire Indiana State Park system.
And so how solar farms are designed
in the backdrop of climate change really matters
because they can act as an agent for community resilience
in the face of more intense and more frequent flooding,
or they could exacerbate it if they're designed poorly.
- [Narrator] Critics say that the solar farms
will eliminate farmland and could disrupt natural habitats.
Similar conflicts have broken out across the plains
of Kansas and Ohio in the sunny California desert
and along the windy Northern Atlantic coast.
Plans for wind farms in the Northeast
were introduced in the 2000s.
But as of 2021,
little had been built beyond a five turbine project
near Rhode Island, that didn't keep developers
from pursuing the area.
Biden officials have given final approval
to a $2.8 billion project to place 84 turbines,
12 miles off the coast of Nantucket island.
Researchers at National Renewable Energy Laboratory
are modeling how these political battles
will affect the country's energy supply.
- It's very difficult to capture people within models.
The social or human side is always hard to distill
into a set of equations.
- [Narrator] Trieu Mai is a senior energy analyst
at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
His team's research shows that the US has enough
wind resources to power the grid,
but the local opposition movements
are starting to limit the supply of land
that can be used for wind farms.
When Mai's team modeled out a scenario
where populated counties keep banning renewables
development was concentrated
into the relatively unsettled mountain west.
- We never expected land to be a constraint for wind
and renewable deployment
for all the energy needs that we have.
But now that we've looked into this further
land use conflicts is a very important issue here.
- [Narrator] Experts say that the bans on renewables
will push up the costs of the energy transition.
That's because wind and solar
are among the cheapest sources of energy
according to levelized cost estimates
from the consulting agency Lazard.
Renewables have been deemed critical
to the future of the global economy,
but the backlashes unfolding in the US
show a latent risk as the green energy markets heat up.
(lighthearted music)