Landowner Resources

Apex leases are designed to protect the rights of the private property owner while ensuring that the company has the legal right to build energy facilities on the property. The Apex lease outlines corporate commitments to the landowner, including payment and notification terms. The lease also outlines a landowner’s commitments to Apex, including an agreement to protect the wind resource and an acknowledgment that the landowner cannot sign a lease with another wind or solar energy company for the same parcel. We encourage landowners to read the lease document carefully and to seek legal counsel as part of their review.

In order to make land leases legally binding, proof that the land has been leased must be filed with the local county clerk. Once filed, this information may be available to the public. However, in most cases, the terms of the lease agreements are proprietary and should remain confidential.

Project components will only be sited on private properties whose owners sign a lease agreement. All agreements are fully voluntary between landowners and the project.

Renewable energy facilities drive economic development by generating taxes and other revenues for local communities. These funds generally flow to counties and local governments, local schools, emergency services, health care services, and public safety facilities. It is well known that quality school districts and local services boost property values, and it therefore follows that wind and solar farms can positively affect nearby property values over time.

A major study released in 2013 on wind farms and property values by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory analyzed more than 50,000 home sales near 67 wind facilities in 27 counties across nine U.S. states. The study concluded that there was no evidence of adverse impacts to nearby home property values from wind energy facilities.

In addition, a 2015 report from the University of North Carolina examined the economic impact of more than 100 solar projects in over 50 counties, finding that solar facilities have increased the tax revenue from agricultural property by between 1,000% and 10,000%.

Modern wind turbines do produce some audible and inaudible sound, but this sound is emitted at levels so low that it should not impact nearby residents in any way. The sound produced by properly functioning turbines comes from the motion of their blades cutting through the air, not the mechanical components of the turbine generator box. Evidence demonstrates that when turbines are sited according to Apex’s internal standards, the audible sound they generate is no louder than a refrigerator, and the low-frequency sound, sometimes called “infrasound,” they produce is similar in intensity to that generated by waves crashing on the beach. Ample scientific evidence confirms that none of this sound is dangerous. In fact, despite decades of study, there is no evidence to show that turbines have any adverse impacts on health at all.

“Shadow flicker” refers to the shadows cast by wind turbine blades as they rotate in front of the sun, similar to the shadow cast by a tree blowing in the wind. Very few homes in a project will experience shadowing; for those that do, shadowing can only occur during certain, specific times of year and for no more than a few minutes per day, on average. During cloudy days, shadow flicker does not occur. If this level of shadowing is still problematic for an individual residence, the project will work with that resident to minimize or eliminate the shadowing effects.

While some worry that even minimal flicker can cause seizures in photosensitive individuals, Epilepsy Foundation research shows that the rate at which wind turbine shadows “flicker” is far below that associated with seizures.

It is possible to design wind energy facilities that minimize avian impacts, and Apex works hard to do so through responsible siting. Our team of in-house and consulting wildlife biologists thoroughly study every Apex project before construction to ensure that migration routes and sensitive habitat is avoided. We work in close consultation with federal and state environmental agencies and use appropriate conservation measures to ensure that our wind projects have no significant effects on bird or bat populations.

Despite claims to the contrary, wind energy projects are far from the most dangerous human-caused threat to birds. Buildings, cars, power lines, and radio and cell phone towers cause far more losses than wind turbines. Housecats kill 2.4 billion birds a year alone.

The largest expense associated with a renewable energy facility is its construction. Once a facility is operating, it becomes a profit generator, because it makes far more money selling the electricity it generates than it costs to maintain. Because operating wind and solar farms provide this benefit to their owners, they represent valuable assets. If something were to happen to prevent a project owner from maintaining ownership, there would always be a group of new owners eager to purchase the asset. Because of their inherent value, we can be confident that operating facilities will not be abandoned.

However, as added protection for local communities, most wind and solar farms do enter decommissioning agreements with their landowners and/or local county governments. Though these agreements vary in specifics, they lay out terms for exactly how a facility will be deconstructed and removed from the site at the end of its serviceable life (about 30 years.) They often specify the depth to which components will be removed from the ground, how the land will be restored for agricultural production, and how the community will be protected from any costs associated with this remediation. In many cases, the facility owner is required to secure a bond to guarantee that the funds to decommission the project are available if and when such action is required.

Properly designed solar projects will maintain, and in some cases can even reduce and improve existing agricultural runoff thanks to permanent groundcover with deeper root systems that increase water retention and organic matter content in previously farmed soils.

Stormwater and runoff management is regulated at the federal, state, and local level. Each state has different methods for regulating how construction and infrastructure projects are permitted with regards to stormwater, but most states do require some form of stormwater management permit through which they assess anticipated impacts to runoff and/or erosion and evaluate proposed mitigation strategies. These laws exist to ensure that no sediment or excess volume is allowed to flow into nearby waterways due to the new facility, and that no excess water is allowed to flow onto neighboring properties.

Apex Clean Energy complies with all federal, state, and local laws, including those related to stormwater and runoff management. Before a project enters construction, a licensed, third-party, civil engineer is hired to complete a full analysis of the project’s anticipated impacts to water flow. The analysis includes consideration of the hydrology and topography of the project site and the specifics of the project’s design and proposes a set of best practice management techniques to ensure runoff from the project does not impact neighbors, existing infrastructure, or waterways. Construction of these projects does not begin until the required stormwater permits have been approved. These permits require the project to prevent any erosion and runoff throughout its life.

Studies show that in addition to helping displace harmful emissions produced by fossil fuel generation, photovoltaic solar energy facilities can improve biodiversity and benefit wildlife by improving habitat in their immediate vicinity. With proper planning, solar farms can improve the environment and enhance local ecological services by naturalizing areas around solar facilities, improving wildlife habitat, increasing pollination, improving water cycling, increasing erosion control, and even helping threatened species. Solar farms can also help create new habitat, providing pollinator-friendly ecosystems and high-quality hunting and foraging habitat for birds.

Although solar panels may modify wildlife habitat in the project’s immediate footprint, evidence suggests that these changes are balanced by other habitat-based benefits, and there is currently no evidence to support a conclusion that solar farms have an adverse impact on wildlife’s use of the land surrounding the project.

At the end of a solar facility’s useful life, estimated to be about 30 years on average, panels can be removed and recycled. Recycling programs are being developed that are expected to recover about 90% of the materials used in the panels, much of which is glass. In fact, the International Renewable Energy Agency projects that the value of recovered materials could exceed $15 billion by 2050 and that the material recovered could be used to remanufacture two billion solar panels. The solar industry is actively developing new systems and protocols in anticipation of the future retirement of solar panels. These efforts include establishing uniform, cost-effective recycling practices (e.g., identifying vendors and service providers, aggregating end-of-life solar components, and streamlining and improving recycling processes).