Homes near solar farms see property values impacted

Here comes the sun — and there goes your property value.

For some homeowners, the arrival of large-scale solar farms has brought more glare than glory.

A new nationwide study led by Virginia Tech finds that homes within a 3-mile radius of utility-scale solar installations experience an average 5% drop in value shortly after the projects are built.

The analysis, which reviewed nearly 9 million real estate transactions across thousands of solar sites, suggests that proximity — not visibility — is the main factor behind the decline.

However, prices rebounded within 10 years, though that’s still not ideal for owners trying to sell property after the installations’ completion.

“We cannot just dismiss those impacts,” Zhenshan Chen, assistant professor of agricultural and applied economics at Virginia Tech, told Cardinal News. “Instead we need to actively manage it. Policymakers, solar developers and communities, arguably they all have some interest in this message.”

Whether or not a home overlooks a field of photovoltaic panels, the financial dip tends to be the same.

These are not rooftop arrays or suburban add-ons, but sprawling solar complexes covering hundreds of acres — often placed in rural or semi-rural areas where land is abundant and resistance is growing.

While suburban homeowners see a dent in equity, nearby agricultural and vacant parcels are becoming hot commodities. Land prices within 2 miles of these facilities jumped close to 19%, thanks to developer interest in expanding near existing infrastructure.

Homes sitting on larger lots — 5 acres or more — appear largely insulated from the price effects, researchers found.

But for those in standard subdivisions, particularly in fast-growing regions like rural Virginia, the clash between green energy and greenbacks is heating up.

The study, authored by a team of economists and real estate analysts from Virginia Tech and the University of Rhode Island, factored in elevation, terrain and line-of-sight to isolate the causes.

The results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, come as Virginia accelerates its transition to carbon-free electricity under a 2020 state law.

Still, the researchers stopped short of issuing a one-size-fits-all verdict.

In some areas — particularly the Midwest — other studies have found solar projects correlated with slight gains in nearby home values. But the Virginia Tech report adds weight to growing concerns in communities where farmland is being rapidly converted into energy zones.

The authors recommend steering new projects toward so-called brownfields — previously developed, often-contaminated industrial sites — which present fewer conflicts but far greater costs.

Cleanup efforts can be prohibitively expensive, even with federal assistance, making farmland the path of least resistance for developers.