Wind Property Rights....Who Owns the Wind?

Along with engineers, solar installers and assemblers of electric vehicles, the clean tech revolution is creating new demand for green jobs in another profession: lawyers. Property law has long held that an owner not only has subterranean rights but airspace as well. Thus it follows that a property owner can own the wind that passes over his property right?

The emerging issue is what is called a wind shadow or a wake effect that is caused by the spinning of the wind turbines. As they turn, they introduce turbulence into the wind, effectively slowing it down and scattering its power. There is already one case in Europe a landowner that will be heard by Norway’s Supreme Court by a landowner who claims that will be diminished by a proposed wind farm planned upwind on an adjacent property. He demands compensation for the lost wind potential on his own land.

Here in the United States, the issue is attracting growing attention from landowners and legal scholars. The problem is that there is not that much black letter on the subject of wind rights. Without a set standard and rules to abide by wind rights are becoming a hot commodity and the complicated issues of wind shadows, wind poaching, and wind wakes are becoming legal battles in the courtroom.  It is clear that states define ownership of wind resources and the boundaries and limits of that ownership.