





































Wind Development in Pennsylvania


COMMONWEALTH, Volume 19, Issue 1 (2017). © 2017 The Pennsylvania Political Science Association.  
ISSN 2469-7672 (online). http://dx.doi.org/10.15367/com.v19i1.134. All rights reserved.

Wind Development in Pennsylvania

A Reflection on State Policy

SARAH BANAS MILLS
University of Michigan

While other states have continued to add wind turbines in recent years, there 
has been no new wind development in Pennsylvania since 2012. This article 
considers how state energy policy as well as local land-u se policies related to 
wind energy compare with other states as a way to understand how these poli-
cies may be impacting wind development in the Keystone State, especially in 
light of the geographical characteristics of the state’s highest quality winds.

Background

In the past decade, the United States has seen exponential growth in the 
percentage of electricity that comes from renewable sources. In much of 
the country, this has meant a large surge in onshore wind energy proj-

ects. Pennsylvania is no exception to this trend. In 2000, the state boasted 
just 10MW of installed wind capacity—a single wind farm of eight turbines 
in Somerset County. By 2009, the state’s total had risen to 748MW, a growth 
rate six times that of the United States as a whole (U.S. Department of Energy 
2016a). Installed capacity in Pennsylvania ticked up again in 2012, when six 
new wind farms came online, bringing the total installed capacity to 1,340MW. 
Since then, however, while other states have added more than 14,000 MW of 
wind energy, wind development in Pennsylvania has flat- lined (see Figure 1).



70 sarah Banas mills

This article does not attempt to identify a single cause for the stalling 
of wind development in the Commonwealth. Indeed, as previous analyses 
have shown, a multitude of factors affect the deployment of wind energy 
within a particular state (Bohn and Lant 2009; Fischlein et al. 2014). How-
ever, this article aims to identify how Pennsylvania’s policies related to wind 
energy compare with other states, as a means of identifying possible factors 
hindering wind energy development. In particular, I first consider how spe-
cific provisions in the state’s renewable energy standard compare nationally. 
I then discuss Pennsylvania’s decentralized regulatory regime for land- use 
decisions effecting the siting of turbines compared with policies that make 
siting decisions at the state level. I conclude by discussing how the geographi-
cal characteristics of the state’s highest wind energy potential may warrant 
reconsidering these policies.

Renewable Energy Policy

At the state level, the most common policy for encouraging utilities to shift 
to renewable technologies has been the renewable portfolio standard (RPS). 
In general terms, this policy tool requires electric utilities operating within 
a state to increase the proportion of electricity that comes from renewable 
sources by a set deadline.

Currently 29 states plus the District of Columbia have a compulsory RPS 
in place, while eight more states have voluntary standards or renewable energy 
goals (National Conference of State Legislatures 2016). The specifics, how-
ever, vary from place to place, with respect to not only the overall required 

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Figure 1. Cumulative Installed Wind Capacity in Pennsylvania Compared to the United 
States, 2000–2015. (U.S. Department of Energy, “Installed Wind Capacity,” WINDExchange, 
2016, available at http://apps2.eere.energy.gov/wind/windexchange/wind_installed_capacity.asp, 
accessed June 10, 2016.)



Wind Development in Pennsylvania 71

proportion of energy that must come from renewable sources and the deadline 
for meeting the goal but also which technologies are considered “renewable.”

Pennsylvania is in the majority of states, having passed a compulsory RPS 
entitled the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act of 2004. On its face, 
the law’s 18% mandate by 2021 is in the middle of the pack compared both 
nationally and to its neighbors. Pennsylvania’s RPS is not nearly as aggressive 
as neighboring New York’s 50% by 2030 standards, but is higher than the 10% 
by 2015 standards of both Michigan and Wisconsin (see Table 1).

table 1. state renewable portfolio standards, sorted by required percentage of 
renewable energy

state Goal nonrenewable alternatives allowed

Hawaii 100% x 2045

Vermont 75% x 2032

Oregon 50% x 2040

California 50% x 2030

New York 50% x 2030

Maine 40% x 2017

Rhode Island 38.5% x 2035

Colorado 30% x 2020 yes

Connecticut 27% x 2020

Minnesota 26.5% x 2025

Delaware 25% x 2026

Illinois 25% x 2026

Ohio 25% x 2026 yes

Nevada 25% x 2025

New Hampshire 24.8% x 2025

New Jersey 20.38% x 2021

Maryland 20% x 2022

New Mexico 20% x 2020

Pennsylvania 18% x 2021 yes

Arizona 15% x 2025

Missouri 15% x 2021

Massachusetts 15% x 2020

Washington 15% x 2020

Montana 15% x 2015

North Carolina 12.5% x 2021

Michigan 10% x 2015 yes

Wisconsin 10% x 2015

Iowa 105MW

Texas 5,880MW x 2015

Sources: Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency, Renewable Portfolio Standards, 
Raleigh, North Carolina State University, 2016. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, National 
Conference of State Legislatures.



72 sarah Banas mills

However, like only three other states, Pennsylvania’s RPS allows non-
renewable alternatives to count toward the total. Allowing these alterna-
tives does not, in itself, reduce the deployment of wind or other renewable 
energy technologies. Michigan’s RPS, for example, counts energy generated 
by municipal solid waste—a nonrenewable—toward the goal, but the 2015 
standard was met nearly exclusively through adding additional wind and 
solar energy (Talberg, Quackenbush, and Saari 2016). However, distinct from 
Michigan and Colorado, which treat select nonrenewables as one of many 
technologies that may be used to meet the requirement, Pennsylvania has a 
two- tier system with separate goals for each tier. The first tier, which includes 
traditional renewable technologies, including wind energy, must make up just 
8% of the electricity generated in the state by 2021. By contrast, the second tier 
must account for 10% of the state’s generation mix by 2021 and must come 
from a separate list of technologies most of which are nonrenewables: waste 
coal, distributed generation systems, demand- side management, large- scale 
hydropower, municipal solid waste, and integrated combined coal gasifica-
tion. As a result, among states with an RPS, Pennsylvania has the lowest stan-
dard strictly for renewable energy.

This comparatively low renewables mandate does not necessarily mean 
that Pennsylvania will lag other states in wind development. Indeed, Iowa has 
long surpassed its modest 105MW renewables mandate; it currently boasts 
6,365MW of installed wind capacity (U.S. Department of Energy 2016a). 
Even so, while there has been significant study and debate about how much 
the national increase in wind energy development can be attributed to RPS 
policies (Menz and Vachon 2006; Shrimali, Lynes, and Indvik 2015; Staid and 
Guikema 2013), most energy analysts believe that a shift toward renewables 
would slow in the absence of robust RPS policies (U.S. Department of Energy 
2015).

Land-Use Regulation  

State energy policies such as the RPS are not the only regulations that may 
impact wind development in a particular state. Given the size of mod-
ern utility- scale turbines—commonly 400 to 500 feet from turbine- tip to 
ground—it should not be surprising that, like other large structures in the 
built environment, wind projects are also subject to land- use regulation. Most 
often, this regulation is aimed at ensuring that turbines are safely sited in case 
of a catastrophic failure (e.g., loss of a turbine blade) or shedding of ice, as well 
as to minimize the noise and visual impacts to neighboring landowners. Such 
regulations usually take the form of minimum setback distances from roads, 



Wind Development in Pennsylvania 73

property lines, or inhabited structures and requirements for vegetative screen-
ing to reduce both noise and shadow flicker (Andriano 2009).

While land-u se regulations are applied to nearly every utility- scale energy 
facility, they can be particularly onerous on wind developments, given the geo-
graphic scale required for economic viability. While a traditional power plant 
might be sited on a single parcel of perhaps a couple thousand acres, modern 
wind farms often spread over hundreds of parcels and tens of thousands of 
acres, increasing the likelihood that they would extend beyond the confines 
of a local municipality. When turbine- siting rules are set at the municipality 
level, developers on a single wind project may need to comply with land- use 
regulations of multiple jurisdictions, a situation that is less common for other 
energy infrastructure.

As a result, it is not uncommon for states, when enacting an RPS, to also 
establish that all land- use regulation associated with wind facilities will hap-
pen at the state level (Heibel 2016). Centralizing land- use regulation not only 
simplifies planning for these large footprint wind projects but also frees wind 
developers to identify project sites where they can maximize energy output—
and subsequently minimize the cost of electricity—rather than factoring in 
whether obstructionist local regulations will delay approval. Theoretically 
this should allow for the most efficient allocation of energy infrastructure 
within the state, based on energy potential rather than local politics, helping 
to minimize the cost of the renewable mandate. Indeed, after a decade- long 
experiment with local- level energy siting, in 2011 New York reinstated state- 
level control for land- use regulation of large (over 25MW) wind facilities to 
allow the state to stay on track to meet its aggressive RPS (Kass et al. 2011; 
Wind Energy Law Blog 2011).

By contrast, in Pennsylvania, wind turbine siting is regulated by each of 
the state’s 2,500+ local governments. While the state, in collaboration with 
electric utilities, developed a model wind zoning ordinance as guidance 
(Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection 2006), localities are 
welcome to adopt alternate regulations.

This local control of wind siting is relatively common in states that have 
a tradition of home rule, and in particular where there is no state- level utility 
siting board (Rynne et al. 2011). Further, this is the regulatory model in Texas, 
the nation’s top wind energy producing state. The rationale for local siting is 
that it affords communities the power to set standards for wind projects so 
that any wind development helps meet the land- use goals of that commu-
nity. While this may lead to restrictive local standards that effectively block 
(i.e., “zone out”) wind development in communities with high wind potential 
(Devine- Wright 2011), it also provides opportunities for less- windy localities 



74 sarah Banas mills

keen on accepting wind development to entice wind developers by enacting 
comparatively lax regulation (Rynne et al. 2011). Which of these scenarios is 
more likely to play out in any state, though, largely depends on the geography 
of a state’s viable wind resources, and how the land is currently used in those 
locations.

Geography and Public Acceptance

While the literature on community acceptance of wind energy is still growing, 
there have been some studies on factors that influence an individual’s attitude 
toward wind development. In particular, individuals’ attachment to the land-
scape has been shown in number studies to increase their opposition to wind 
energy (Jacquet 2012; Otto and Leibenath 2014; Park and Selman 2011). By 
contrast, landowners who value their land more for its utility (e.g., as a work-
ing landscape) and less for its scenic value are more likely to support wind 
energy (van der Horst 2007; Veelen and Haggett 2016). The logical extension 
is that when a state’s windiest places are also valued for their scenery—such as 
vacation destinations, recreational areas, or suburbanizing communities on 
the urban fringe—local communities are more likely to oppose wind develop-
ment. By contrast, when the state has viable wind resources in working land-
scapes—such as farmland, ranchland, or mining areas—local communities 
are more likely to support wind development, largely for the economic benefits 
it brings to individual landowners and local governments (Kahn 2013).

Pennsylvania’s best wind resources are concentrated in three areas: in Erie 
County in the extreme northwest of the state, following the ridgeline of the 
Allegheny Mountains through the central part of the state, and along scat-
tered ridges in the northeast corner (U.S. Department of Energy 2016b). To 
date, Pennsylvania’s wind development has been exclusively in the Alleghenies 
and mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania, largely in areas with a history of 
energy extraction and distant from large population centers. While there are 
still undoubtedly viable sites along more remote ridgelines (particularly in the 
western Alleghenies), most of the untapped wind potential lies in areas closer 
to recreational or residential communities. And these sites are being met with 
fierce opposition both in the Lehigh Valley (Radzievich 2016) as well as in Erie 
County (Myers 2015), where projects have been cancelled due to restrictive 
local ordinances or public opposition.

As mentioned previously, though, local control also provides an opportu-
nity for communities in less- windy locations to attract wind development to 
their community. However, this works only where there are ample locations 
with viable wind speeds. Pennsylvania, in comparison to states to its north 



Wind Development in Pennsylvania 75

and west, has relatively modest wind resources (U.S. Department of Energy 
2016b), with the best second- tier wind resources in the state available in iso-
lated pockets in the counties along the northern border with New York State, 
and in Lancaster and York Counties in the southeast. And there does appear 
to be at least some interest in wind energy in both of these regions. A township 
in Potter County in north-c entral Pennsylvania has cited community- level 
economic benefits of wind development—specifically payments by the wind 
developer to the township government—in its review of a proposed wind farm 
(Davis 2016). Meanwhile, farther south, in Lancaster County, the Frey Farm 
Landfill currently operates two utility- scale wind turbines. There might also 
be opportunities to discuss how wind energy might complement this region’s 
long-s tanding goals of preserving farmland (Mulvaney, Woodson, and Pro-
kopy 2013; Union of Concerned Scientists 2003), but there is little evidence 
that such discussions are underway. Absent a greater push for wind develop-
ment in these locations, the prospects for substantial future wind develop-
ment in Pennsylvania under its current land- use regime are likely limited.

Conclusion

Taken in isolation, nothing about Pennsylvania’s energy or land- use policies 
would explain why the state has seen a four- year drought of wind develop-
ment while the nation as a whole has increased its wind capacity 24% in this 
time. The state does have a policy in place mandating an increase in renewable 
energy, and the state’s policy to delegate land- use authority for wind develop-
ment to local units is not uncommon. However, given the state’s relatively 
modest wind potential and the geographic location of the state’s best wind 
resources in areas that may be predisposed to oppose wind development, 
without changes to state policy, it is likely that wind development will be lim-
ited in the state. Strengthening the state’s RPS to either exclude nonrenewable 
alternative energy sources or increase the percentage that must come from 
renewables would put Pennsylvania on par with the mandates set by other 
states, but it might also increase the price of electricity if utility companies 
are unable to find communities willing to accept wind development. Altering 
land- use regulation to give the state more power to overrule local govern-
ments that wish to completely block wind development would help to over-
come this problem, but it would likely be a difficult sell in a state that so values 
local land- use control.

Shifts to state policy, though, may not be the only ways to increase the 
deployment of wind energy in the state. Increased governmental or non-
governmental, proactive outreach (to communities with more modest wind 



76 sarah Banas mills

potential that may be predisposed to support local wind development for its 
attendant local economic benefits) may lead to local land- use regulations that 
favor wind development and help entice wind developers to these commu-
nities. Additionally, technological advances in wind energy technology may 
increase the number of communities across the state where utility- scale wind 
turbines can be viably sited. As a result, there is no reason to believe that 
wind development in Pennsylvania has hit its peak; it just may need a nudge 
to break from its current plateau.

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sarah Banas mills, PhD, is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Local, State, 
and Urban Policy (CLOSUP), housed in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the 
University of Michigan. She serves as project manager for the center’s survey programs, 
including the National Surveys on Energy and Environment (NSEE); teaches classes on 
energy and environmental policy; and is continuing her own research on the impacts of 
wind energy on rural communities. Her recent work has been published in State and Local 
Government Review.




