Currently, most landowners who participate in commercial-scale wind development do so by entering into a lease or easement agreement with a commercial wind developer.

In a case like this, the landowner would sign an agreement granting the developer the right to use their land for wind development, and in return, the landowner would receive compensation from the developer. Typically, the developer would own any turbines that are put up and would do all of the work of developing the project. 

Land Lease Overview 

When you lease your land to a wind developer, you receive compensation from a project developer who puts up a commercial-scale project on your land. The amount and details of this compensation vary in both amount and duration from project to project. The key to this type of participation is that you don't put up, own, or operate the turbines - the developer does all of those things. Typically, this is the lowest risk way to participate in commercial-scale wind. However, the lease or easement agreement you will enter into is a complex and binding legal document. You should always seek out experienced legal help in negotiating and evaluating any agreement with a developer.

Wind leases and easements are often written to cover extremely long periods of time--30 to 60 years is typical, and they can be longer than 150 years in some cases. Because of the long-term ramifications of wind leases and easements, and because they are often complicated documents full of technical and legal terms, it is important for landowners to seek assistance in assessing any offer made to them.

We recommend that any landowner considering signing a lease or easement consult a lawyer with experience in wind energy development.

Resources

Windustry has developed a series of resources designed to accomplish two things:

• To help landowners make informed decisions about their land
• To promote agreement practices that are mutually beneficial to both landowners and project developers.

These resources were last updated in September, 2005:

• Project Summary - A quick project summary that reviews the goals and outcome of the leases and easements revisions.
• Wind Energy Easement and Lease Agreement Guidelines - An updated version of Windustry's original leases and easement information. This expanded document covers wind energy land leases as well as wind energy easements and features updated information on provisions, recommendations, and items to watch out for.
• Compensation Packages for Wind Energy Land Agreements - This short paper summarizes published information about compensation packages for landowners and discusses the factors that seem to drive compensation levels. It also highlights several more detailed stories about land agreements for specific projects around the country.
• Best Practices and Policy Recommendations for Wind Energy Land Agreements - The Wind Easement Workgroup developed a list of recommended policies and practices for facilitating orderly and sustainable wind energy development. These policies are designed to protect landowners, enhance economic development opportunities in wind energy, and broaden access to wind energy market information.
• Community Wind Toolbox Chapter 7: Leases and Easements - Find a quick overview of leases and easements and links to additional chapters containing helpful project planning information.
• Wind Energy Easement and Lease Bibliography - This document lists a variety of useful resources related to wind energy lease and easement agreements.

Request for Development 

Many people wonder how they can get a developer to come put up turbines on their land. In most cases, the developer approaches the landowner, not the other way around. This is largely because developers tend to have large-scale strategies already in place. It is a bad idea to make financial or other decisions based on the assumption that you will be able to convince a developer to lease your land.

That said, if you are determined to try to find a developer to lease your land, we'd suggest starting by looking and asking around to see if any developers are already working in your immediate area and contacting them. The American Wind Energy Association provides a listing of develoeprs that can help you get started. You can search for current projects as well as find a listing of developers. If there's no one developing in th earea, you could try looking through directories of commercial-scale developers through Windustry's Company Directory or American Wind Energy Association's listings. Keep in mind that it is unlikely that you will be successful!