Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa and California may have the largest investment of wind farm operations in the country, but reports indicate robust growth is seen in Kansas and Minnesota.
While Oklahoma is moved in recent years to remove tax incentives for the wind industry, tax incentives are still important in driving developers to choose one windy state over another.
A report by Electric Light and Power examined how the explosion in wind farm operations has led to a rural tax “windfall,” something that schools in more nearly two dozen Oklahoma counties have already experienced.
As the publication noted, private investment in wind energy is benefiting many local governments by driving tax base growth and generating new tax revenues.
An estimated 46 percent of the country’s installed wind power capacity is in Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa and California. As of January 2018, more than 400 counties in 41 states had wind farms. That’s more than double the number reported 10 years ago.
Counties reaping the largest and most reliable benefits are allowed to apply their locally determined property tax rate to the valuation of wind turbines, as is the case in Iowa. Other counties, such as those in Minnesota, charge a tax on annual kilowatt hours of wind energy produced.
California and Texas local governments can charge locally determined property tax rates on the value of wind turbines, but their benefits are reduced due to contravening factors. Texas school districts, for example, utilize local property tax incentives that reduce a majority of their operating benefits. Despite being home to some of the largest wind farms in the country, California counties are much less affected due to the sheer size of their tax base.