It’s in my back yard–IIMBY.
The acronym could apply to large-scale solar photovoltaic projects and their potential impact on local economic factors, including home sale prices. In general, the effects of IIMBY have not been widely studied. But new work from Berkeley Lab seeks to change that.
The analysis, “Shedding light on large-scale solar impacts: an analysis of property values and proximity to photovoltaics across six U.S. states,” compiles a dataset that includes home sale transactions and large-scale solar PV arrays in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, and North Carolina.
Combined, the six states account for more than 50% of the installed megawatt capacity of large-scale solar PV in the U.S. The analysis included more than 1,500 such arrays, 1 MW in size and larger, and 1.8 million home sale transactions.
The analysis found that the effects of large-scale solar projects on home sale prices depended on many factors that proved not to be uniform across all solar developments or across all states.
For example, for homes within 0.5 miles of a big solar array compared to homes 2-4 miles away, the researchers noted a reduction in home sale prices in three s
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