Sell Your Wind Lease or Easement

A wind lease gives a wind company the right to possess and use your land for wind energy development, typically for 20-50 years. This creates a landlord-tenant relationship – you receive rental payments during development and royalty payments once turbines are producing. When the lease term expires, those rights end.

A wind easement gives limited rights to use your property for a specific purpose without transferring possession. Common easements include access roads, transmission lines, construction areas, and restrictions on building structures that would block wind flow to turbines. Easements can be perpetual (permanent) or for a set term, often 30-50 years. They’re recorded in county land records and typically remain binding even when you sell the property.

Many wind agreements include both a lease (for the land where turbines sit) and easements (for access roads, transmission lines, or protecting airspace where turbine blades sweep across neighboring properties). Payment structures differ – leases usually provide ongoing payments tied to production, while easements might involve one-time payments or smaller ongoing payments.

When you sell property, wind leases and easements typically transfer to the new owner for their remaining terms.

What makes a wind lease or easement more valuable?
Several factors increase wind lease and easement values:

Property size and topography: Larger tracts with suitable terrain for turbine placement are more attractive. Each modern turbine requires approximately 60 acres of land (though the actual footprint is much smaller), so properties that can accommodate multiple turbines are more valuable.

Turbine capacity and production: Leases covering newer, higher-capacity turbines (3+ megawatts) generate more electricity and therefore higher royalty and rent payments than older, smaller turbines.

Favorable lease terms: Agreements with escalation clauses that keep pace with inflation, minimum guaranteed payments, production royalties (typically 3-6% of gross revenues), and reasonable lease durations increase value.

Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs): Wind farms with long-term PPAs providing fixed electricity prices offer more stable, predictable revenue than those selling into volatile spot markets.

Operator reputation: Projects operated by established, well-capitalized companies with strong track records reduce risk and increase lease value compared to smaller, unproven developers.

Several factors can decrease wind lease and easement values:

Poor wind resource: Lower average wind speeds or inconsistent wind patterns result in reduced energy production and lower royalty payments.
Distance from electrical infrastructure: Properties located far from substations and transmission lines require expensive infrastructure investments, reducing what developers can pay landowners.

Weak escalation clauses: Wind leases with annual payment increases of only 1-3% lose value over time since these rates typically don’t keep pace with inflation (historically 3-4% annually).

Turbine age approaching repowering timeline: Turbines older than 8-12 years face economic pressure to repower. Lease payments may stop if the developer chooses to decommission rather than repower, and landowners have little control over this decision.

Unfavorable market conditions: Properties in areas without strong electricity demand, lacking state or federal renewable energy incentives, or facing regulatory hurdles command lower payments.  The second Trump administration’s anti-wind policies are having a dramatic impact on wind energy development and repowering.

Land use restrictions: Properties with conservation easements, agricultural restrictions, or environmental sensitivities that complicate development reduce lease values. Wind leases can also make land less attractive to other buyers (including for future oil and gas development) because they tie up the property for decades.

Payment structure risks: Leases based solely on production royalties (without minimum guaranteed payments) expose landowners to revenue uncertainty from equipment downtime, utility curtailment, and market price fluctuations.

Severance of payment stream: If wind payment rights have been sold separately from land ownership, the property becomes less valuable because it’s encumbered by wind infrastructure without the income stream to compensate.

Repowering is the process of replacing aging wind turbines or their major components (blades, nacelle, control systems) with newer, more efficient technology. Developers typically replace multiple older turbines with fewer, larger, more powerful turbines to increase energy output and extend the project’s operational life.

Why 8-12 years is the critical window:
Wind turbines are designed to last 20-25 years, but economic incentives often make repowering attractive much earlier. Industry data shows that turbines older than 10-12 years can achieve capacity factor gains of 10-20% through repowering, making it economically preferable to continuing operation with aging equipment (which becomes increasingly expensive over time). The median age for partially repowered wind facilities in the U.S. is approximately 10 years.

Risk to landowners:
When turbines approach 8-12 years of age, landowners face uncertainty because:

Developer’s choice: The decision to repower, extend operations, or decommission rests entirely with the wind company, not the landowner. Lease payments typically stop if turbines are decommissioned.
Economic vs. contractual life: Even though leases run 20-50 years, economic factors (technology advances, federal tax credits, changing electricity markets) often drive repowering decisions that can interrupt or end payment streams well before the lease expires.
Turbine degradation: Studies show wind turbine output declines approximately 1.6% annually due to wear and tear. Older turbines become less efficient and more expensive to maintain, increasing the likelihood of early decommissioning.
Permit and regulatory hurdles: Repowering may require new permits that weren’t needed for the original turbines. If permits can’t be obtained, the developer may decommission rather than continue operating aging equipment.
No guarantee of repower: While some leases include language about repowering rights, developers have no obligation to repower. They may choose to decommission if repowering economics don’t work or if they can’t secure necessary approvals.

This creates a particular risk for landowners who purchased wind royalties or leases expecting 20-30 years of payments – those income streams may end much sooner if turbines are decommissioned rather than repowered.  Even if repowered, specific turbines may be decommissioned to keep the total output the same while using higher capacity turbines.