Hundreds of megawatts of community wind projects have already been installed throughout the country, but increased policy support for locally-owned projects is needed so that rural America can continue to benefit from this growing industry.

The Farmer’s Legal Action Group (FLAG) recently published a report titled: “Community Wind: A Review of Select State and Federal Policy Incentives” that examines policies that increase the viability of community wind projects. The report is intended to help local policy makers identify the key policy initiatives that will best support community wind development in their jurisdictions. The FLAG report is an excellent overview of the policy issues related to community wind development today and therefore we will simply provide a link to it for this section of the Toolbox, rather than duplicate that information here. The report can be found by clicking here.

The FLAG report does not indicate the relative merit of the various policies that it examines, however. The policies need to be ranked so that policymakers can create an overall policy package that effectively addresses existing needs. Thus Windustry evaluated and ranked each policy summarized in the FLAG report based on their financial impact, practicality, and how they address key market barriers. Our analysis, titled “Reaching Community Wind’s Potential,” can be found online by clicking the link.