Windustry is working on updating and revising our easement materials and we would love to have your feedback:

What are your main concerns when it comes to leasing your land or signing an easement?

If you've already signed an agreement, has wind development had any unexpected impacts on your land or how you use it?

If you've used Windustry's current easement materials (http://www.windustry.org/opportunities/easements.htm) , are there any topics that you wish were addressed, but aren't already?

We very much want to learn from your experiences and appreciate your feedback.

Sarah, Out in the Eastern Plains of Colorado the activity by developers, landowner groups, politicians and etc. is almost frenzied.

Nearly every week we hear rumors of new options being circulated by developers or a new landowners group trying to make something happen.

I have looked at your landowners and option information and it is some of the best I have seen during 6 weeks of pretty heavy internet surfing.

I read the recent GAO report on your site and also found it fairly informative. The one thing that I really believe from the GAO findings was that there is not enough information available to help landowners make sound decisions on terms of landowner compensation for easements and rents or royalties.

After studying hundreds of pages of information I have concluded that compensation values for landholders is the best kept secret since the formula for CoCa-Cola. Sure many sites contain guidelines, but when you are entering into a 20-30 year agreement it would be nice to know the value of your land a little bit closer than the $3,000/mW range so often quoted in the available material.

If you use a wind energy consultant they will tell you that your offer is within the range. High or low end? Appearently confidentiality agreements are working very well. Is there anyone out there that really knows?

Will our children laugh at us in 10 years and say we gave away the farm when we made a deal with a wind developer back in 2004 and they are going to have to live with it for another 15 years? If they do it won't be for lack of trying, but for lack of valid information.

Maybe this forum will allow something constructive to happen.

THX, Lamar

Thanks for the post. You're right, those confidentiality agreements are a huge barrier for landowners trying to figure out whether they're getting a good deal. Not every developer includes a confidentiality agreement, some prefer to work more openly with a whole community and offer everybody the same deal. Other developers see confidentiality as part of their competitive advantage for securing the best wind sites.

Getting more detailed information to landowners on how to figure out if they are getting a good deal is something we are actively working on. If you could have access to any kind of information to help you make these decisions, what would it be? Dollar amount ranges? Advantages and disadvantages of different kinds of compensation packages?

Thanks again, we really appreciate your feedback.

Specific dollar amounts converted to $ / mW capicity would be the best number. The next best number would be percent of anticipated yield.

The numbers you find are often in a range ($2-5000 / turbine). This does not really tell you much if you do not know the turbine size or where in such a broad range.

Lamar

Man, it sure is great to find this site and this forum. I am a farmer in Canada and have recently been approached by a wind farm developer, namely our provincially owned Hydro company. My biggest concern is the fact that they want to erect the towers on very productive farm land and I am worried about the impact that will have on my farm operations. I realize the towers are not that big around but what about the access roads, running into the middle of the field? If I sign can they put the towers anywhere in the field and then build a mile long road to them? Also the contract is for two twenty five year periods with the payment being a percentage of kilowatts produced at a fixed price of 8 cents per kilowatt. Shouldn't this be adjustable? Who knows what electricity will cost in 25 years? Hope there are some people out there who have had this experience and can help. Thanks in advance

Geoff,
I hope we can be of some help to you. I don't know if you've seen it, but Windustry has a good resource on our website that addresses several of the questions you posed: http://www.windustry.org/opportunities/easements.htm

Any contract should be really clear on how much of your land is covered by it and what your rights are as far as influencing the siting of turbines, roads and other equipment. It sounds to me like you would particularly benefit from maintaining some control over where the roads go, which probably has more flexibility than where the turbines need to go.

You're right that we have no idea what will happen to electricity prices in 25 years. However, if the company can lock in the rate for which power from this project will be sold, then maybe they don't think an adjustment clause is necessary. With fixed annual payments, we usually think it's fair for there to be cost of living adjustments.

With any agreement that offers you a percentage of the revenues, you need to have good access to information on what the calculation will be based on and production information from the turbine. But, maybe this will less of a problem with a provincially owned company? Maybe they're less guarded with information then private companies? I don't really know.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Sarah Johnson,

As I mentioned in my original post in this thread, Windustry's working to put together new materials for landowners on wind easements. As Lamar posted here, one of the most difficult things is getting good information about compensation.

Well, as part of our new package of easement materials, we're working on a paper/fact sheet on compensation packages. Confidentialiy clauses prevent us from doing a real scientific survey, and even if we could, the information would be out of date within months of being published. So instead, we're going to put together a document that covers two main things: 1) the main factors that influence compensation levels (i.e. size of machine, land value, electricity prices, projects costs, etc.) that landowners can use to assess the their own situation, and 2) we're collecting stories to share from real wind projects with more details than the usual $2-5,000 per turbine type of info.

If anybody has information to share on landowner compensation (particularly from published and/or citable sources) to share, it would be very useful for this work. Plese post it here or e-mail me at sarahjohnson@windustry.org.

Let us not forget SOMEONE will be REQUIRED (no choice here ) to host transmission lines.Wind energy is usless without transmission. What do you think is fair compensation for transmission easements?

quote:

Let us not forget SOMEONE will be REQUIRED (no choice here ) to host transmission lines.Wind energy is usless without transmission. What do you think is fair compensation for transmission easements?

Henry, that's a good point. We're going to try to address that issue a little bit in some of our new materials. I think the ideal scenario is for new transmission lines for wind energy to benefit the landowners who host them beyond just compensation for the right of way. There's a model case in southwest Minnesota where the one of the conditions the Public Utilities Commission made for approving the new line was to set aside capacity (60 MW) on the line for locally owned wind power.

As a result, there are two groups in SW MN (Community Wind South and Community Wind North) that are working to develop two wind projects, 30 MW, each that will be built in conjunction with construction of the new power line in 2007. The plan, as I understand it, is to to give any landowner hosting the power line the opportunity to invest in one of the 30 MW projects at an accessible level.

There's more information on this case in our Community Wind Energy Conference Proceedings, on the Wind on the Wires website (www.windonthewires.org), or in the PUC Order itself: http://www.solpath.com/luna/admin/documents/345_Order.pdf.

"As I mentioned in my original post in this thread, Windustry's working to put together new materials for landowners on wind easements. As Lamar posted here, one of the most difficult things is getting good information about compensation.

Well, as part of our new package of easement materials, we're working on a paper/fact sheet on compensation packages. Confidentialiy clauses prevent us from doing a real scientific survey, and even if we could, the information would be out of date within months of being published. So instead, we're going to put together a document that covers two main things: 1) the main factors that influence compensation levels (i.e. size of machine, land value, electricity prices, projects costs, etc.) that landowners can use to assess the their own situation, and 2) we're collecting stories to share from real wind projects with more details than the usual $2-5,000 per turbine type of info."


Has there been more progress on this? Thanks for the information. I think it will be a great asset for the landowners.

quote:

Has there been more progress on this? Thanks for the information. I think it will be a great asset for the landowners.

We're working on it, the plan is to have some materials ready early this summer and the full package of new easement materials ready in September.

quote:

Originally posted by henry:
Let us not forget SOMEONE will be REQUIRED (no choice here ) to host transmission lines.Wind energy is usless without transmission. What do you think is fair compensation for transmission easements?

Your'r going to have a problem here. Not only is compensation an issue, the TERMS of the easement is vitatily important. As you mentioned, REQUIRED(eminate domain) creates an involintary situation ( all of the rest of the wind industry is volintary)with most of the legal power in the hands of the utility building the line. Here in the 345 S.W.Mn. project, the easement payment per acre is calculated as follows:3600 x85% = 3060 per acre. ONE TIME payment, for right of way for EVER. Compare this with the wind tower payment, and one can see a vast difference. Xcel seems to think this is fair unless the property has a prior easement (1964:average1/2 mile payment:600$) then THE PAYMENT IS REDUCED BY 50%. This is verifable. On a 75 ft.x1/2 mile ROWthats a 6900$ REDUCTION because someone recieved 600$ in 1964. We are in the process of fighting this. Otter Tail Power pays 150% of real estate value. I have much experience in this matter. Encourage anyone facing this to contact me,Best Regards.

Proplock quote I have much experience in this matter. Encourage anyone facing this to contact me,Best Regards.[/QUOTE]

We have signed easement agreements for Iowa farmland and it was mentioned that the developer is interested in some of our property for transmission sites, buidling perhaps or other. What information about compensation do you have on this issue? The project is just getting started, construction estimated to begin in Spring 2007. thanks for any information you can pass along.

We don't have nearly as many examples for compensation for hosting transmission lines as we do for wind turbines, but I'm glad to share those that we have collected. The numbers below were collected from news articles and other sources over the last couple years.

1) LaMoure County, ND: one time payments of $640 per pole and $150 per "anchor, guy wires". Agreements last for 99 years.

2) Lamar, CO area: $10,000/mile pasture land, $20,000/mile for good farm land. Other reports of negotiation for $14,000/mile and $30,000/mile. All one time payments.

3) Lamar, CO 2005 wind project: $0.50/linear ft or $2,630/yr total. About 28 poles per mile. $500 per year for option period. Agreements last 35 years with 5 year option period.

4) Southwest MN 2006: Landowners being offered 85% of the cost of land ($3,060 per acre) or 50% cost of the land ($1,530 per acre) if there was an existing transmission easement. Perpetual easements. (Looks like our info matches proplock's post above.)

These are just a few examples that have not been independently verified with the companies or landowners involved.

If anybody else has some good information, please post it here.