Ben Hoen

The Impact of Wind Power Projects on Residential Property Values in the United States: A Multi-Site Hedonic Analysis

This report uses statistical analysis to evaluate the impact of wind power projects on property values, and fails to uncovers conclusive evidence of the existence of any widespread property value impacts.

A Spatial Hedonic Analysis of the Effects of Wind Energy Facilities on Surrounding Property Values in the United States

LBNL-XXXXE E RNEST O RLANDO L AWRENCE B ERKELEY N ATIONAL L ABORATORY A Spatial Hedonic Analysis of the Effects of Wind Energy Facilities on Surrounding Property Values in the United States Ben Hoen, Jason P. Brown, Thomas Jackson, Ryan Wiser, Mark Thayer and Peter Cappers Environmental Energy Technologies Division August 2013 This work was supported by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (Wind and Water Power Technologies Office) of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH1123.

An Analysis of the Effects of Residential Photovoltaic Energy Systems on Home Sales Prices in California

LBNL-4476E E RNEST O RLANDO L AWRENCE B ERKELEY N ATIONAL L ABORATORY An Analysis of the Effects of Residential Photovoltaic Energy Systems on Home Sales Prices in California Ben Hoen, Ryan Wiser, Peter Cappers and Mark Thayer Environmental Energy Technologies Division April 2011 Download from http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/emp/reports/lbnl-4476e.pdf This work was supported by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (Solar Energy Technologies Program) of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231, by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory under Contract No. DEK-8883050, and by the Clean Energy States Alliance.

RESIDENTIAL PHOTOVOLTAIC ENERGY SYSTEMS IN CALIFORNIA: THE EFFECT ON HOME SALES PRICES

Relatively little research exists estimating the marginal impacts of photovoltaic (PV) energy systems on home sale prices. Using a large dataset of California homes that sold from 2000 through mid-2009, we find strong evidence, despite a variety of robustness checks, that existing homes with PV systems sold for a premium over comparable homes without PV systems, implying a near full return on investment. Premiums for new homes are found to be considerably lower than those for existing homes, implying, potentially, a tradeoff between price and sales velocity. The results have significant implications for homeowners, builders, appraisers, lenders, and policymakers.

Reconsidering barriers to wind power projects: community engagement, developer transparency and place

ABSTRACT In 2016, we undertook a nationally representative wind power perceptions survey of individuals living within 8 km of over 600 projects in the United States, generating 1705 telephone, web, and mail responses. We sought information on a variety of topics, including procedural fairness and its relationship to project attitude, the foci of the present analysis. We present a series of descriptive statistics and regression results, emphasizing those residents who were aware of their local project prior to construction. Sample weighting is employed to account for stratification and non-response. We find that a developer being open and transparent, a community being able to influence the outcome, and having a say in the planning process are all statistically significant predictors of a process perceived as being ‘fair,’ with an open and transparent developer having the largest effect. We also find developer transparency and ability to influence outcomes to have statistically significant relationships to a more positive attitude, with those findings holding when aesthetics, landscape, and wind turbine sound considerations are controlled for. The results indicate that jurisdictions might consider developing procedures, which ensure citizens are consulted and heard, and benchmarks or best practices for developer interaction with communities and citizens.

Selling Into the Sun: Price Premium Analysis of a Multi-State Dataset of Solar Homes

Author(s): Adomatis, Sandra; Jackson, Thomas; Graff-Zivin, Joshua; Thayer, Mark; Klise, Geoffrey; Wiser, Ryan

Exploring California PV Home Premiums

E RNEST O RLANDO L AWRENCE B ERKELEY N ATIONAL L ABORATORY Exploring California PV Home Premiums Ben Hoen, Geoffrey T. Klise, Joshua Graff-Zivin, Mark Thayer, Joachim Seel and Ryan Wiser Environmental Energy Technologies Division November 2013 Download from: http://emp.lbl.gov/publications/exploring-california-pv-home-premiums This research builds on work published in 2011 entitled “An Analysis of the Effects of Residential Photovoltaic Energy Systems on Home Sales Prices in California,” LBNL- 4476E, which can be downloaded here: http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/emp/reports/lbnl- 4476e.pdf. This work was supported by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (Solar Energy Technologies Office) of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

Assessing the Impacts of Reduced Noise Operations of Wind Turbines on Neighbor Annoyance: A Preliminary Analysis in Vinalhaven, Maine

LBNL-XXXX E RNEST O RLANDO L AWRENCE B ERKELEY N ATIONAL L ABORATORY Assessing the Impacts of Reduced Noise Operations of Wind Turbines on Neighbor Annoyance: A Preliminary Analysis in Vinalhaven, Maine Ben Hoen, Haftan Eckholdt, and Ryan Wiser Environmental Energy Technologies Division June 2010 Download from http://eetd.lbl.gov/EA/EMP The work described in this report was funded by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (Wind & Hydropower Technologies Program) of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. i

IEA Wind Task 26. Wind Technology, Cost, and Performance Trends in Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Norway, the European Union, and the United States: 2007–2012

This report builds from a similar previous analysis (Schwabe et al., 2011) exploring the differences in cost of wind energy in 2008 among countries participating in IEA Wind Task 26 at that time. The levelized cost of energy (LCOE) is a widely recognized metric for understanding how technology, capital investment, operations, and financing impact the life-cycle cost of building and operating a wind plant. Schwabe et al. (2011) apply a spreadsheet-based cash flow model developed by the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) to estimate LCOE. This model is a detailed, discounted cash flow model used to represent the various cost structures in each of the participating countries from the perspective of a financial investor in a domestic wind energy project. This model is used for the present analysis as well, and comparisons are made for those countries who contributed to both reports, Denmark, Germany, and the United States.

Diffusion of Innovations: Interplay of Social, Economic, Technological, and Policy Drivers in the Solar Industry—Summary of UT Austin Student Capstone Research Projects

Author(s): Wiser, RH; Darghouth, NR; Hoen, B; Barbose, GL; Seel, J; Rai, V; Beck, A; Sekar, A; Reeves, DC; Funkhouser, E; Shaughnessy, EO; Sigrin, B; Canfield, C | Abstract: The University of Texas at Austin’s Policy Research Project (PRP), a nine-month (two semesters) capstone, is a keystone of the core curriculum at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. In PRPs, small groups of students, under the mentorship of a faculty director, take on real-world problems that require special knowledge and skill sets. PRPs expose students to challenges in formulating and executing research, and in communicating academic research and related complex data to broader stakeholder communities and decision makers. The PRP structure is an innovative and effective approach for integrating research within the teaching and training of graduate students who are preparing themselves to address important real-world problems at the intersection of society, economics, technology, and policy. The project summaries below describe seven papers developed during September 2017 – May 2018 as part of a PRP on “Diffusion of Innovations: Interplay of Social, Economic, Technological, and Policy Drivers in the Solar Industry.” Twenty graduate students, drawn from the LBJ School’s Masters in Public Affairs and Masters in Global Policy Studies programs and the Jackson School Geoscience’s Energy and Earth Resources program, participated in this PRP. Dr. Varun Rai, Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the LBJ School, directed the PRP, with support from his research team including: Dr. Ariane Beck, Dr. Ashok Sekar, D. Cale Reeves, and Erik Funkhouser. Clients for the project included the U.S. Department of Energy (Casey Canfield), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Ben Hoen, Galen Barbose Joachim Seel, Naim Darghouth, Ryan Wiser), and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Benjamin Sigrin, Eric O’Shaughnessy). The seven projects separately addressed one of the following topics: (1) low- and middle-income PV adoption, (2) modeling economic and information intervention design, (3) evaluation of DOE’s Solar in Your Community Challenge, (4) property value impacts near large-scale solar facilities, (5) solar market maturity and evolution of business models, (6) social media data for predicting PV adoption, and (7) individual-level variation in adoption of innovations. Many of the papers relied on data collected and curated by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, including data embedded within the annual Tracking the Sun and Utility-Scale Solar reports. Each of the seven teams in the PRP prepared a research paper. The PRP culminated with a full-day conference at UT Austin in May 2018 to present findings from the seven projects in this PRP to a broad audience of about 75 experts from academia, national labs, industry, and government from across the country.