Property Values and Utility-Scale Solar Facilities

In 2018, graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin explored the impacts of property values near 956 utility-scale solar installations completed in 2016 or earlier across the United States. The researchers, in partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, surveyed approximately 400 property value assessors nationwide, asking if the assessor believed there was an impact on home prices near these sites, the scale and direction of those impacts, and the source of those impacts. The results indicate that most assessors who responded to the survey believe that “proximity to a solar installation has either no impact or a positive impact on home values.” The study found that the respondents believe that some features of solar facilities may be associated with positive impacts, such as a location on land that previously had an unappealing use, or the presence of trees or other visual barriers around the array. Furthermore, as the expected lifetime of a solar facility is at least thirty years, residents have assurance the nearby land will not be redeveloped for an unfavorable use. Read the study here.