Distance and intensity effects of renewable energy on property prices: A hedonic price analysis for Germany

Huge low-carbon investments are required to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement. However, one obstacle for these investments may be public opposition to the installment of low-carbon technology due to high perceived net costs. In this paper, we analyze the local net costs of both wind turbines and PV farms, employing a hedonic price analysis with 1 km 2 grid fixed effects on the universe of housing ads from Germany’s largest online real estate platform for the period spanning from 2009 to 2021. Beyond estimating average treatment effects, we focus on distance and intensity specific effects of wind turbines and PV farms on property prices. We find largely robust evidence that wind turbines exhibit a small and local negative price effect of roughly 2% on properties that are within a 1-2 km distance, while the effect amounts to 1.5% for PV farms. Moreover, the effects seem to become larger the more wind turbines or PV farms are installed in the proximity of a property.