Study documents wind regulations across all Kansas counties, can help guide energy policies nationwide

LAWRENCE — Kansas has some of the highest potential for wind energy of any state in the nation. Yet until recently, there was no central repository for the differing approaches to wind regulation across the state’s 105 counties. New research from the University of Kansas stemming from the creation of an energy transition atlas found counties use at least five different policy approaches to enable or block wind development, and the findings can help governments and planners across the region guide their own energy futures.

Researchers at KU recently created the Kansas Energy Transition Atlas, a GIS-powered site that features regulatory information for every county in the state. The interactive site allows elected officials, developers, landowners and anyone interested in wind energy to easily find information on wind policy, information about the number of turbines in place, transmission lines and much more.

In a new study, researchers analyzed data gathered from all 105 counties to answer two questions: How do regulations of wind facilities vary at the county level, and what factors appear to explain the variation? Results showed about 70% of counties have some sort of regulations. Of those, about one-fourth to one-third have “blocking” regulations, or those meant to restrict wind development, leaving about 40% of the state’s counties with “enabling” regulations, or policies intended to accommodate such development.

“When it comes to wind potential, even the county in Kansas with the least wind potential still has more potential than virtually every county east of the Appalachians. Most Kansas counties are realizing that this is an economic improvement opportunity and that wind and agriculture are not mutually exclusive,” said Ward Lyles, professor of public affairs & administration at KU and one of the study’s authors.

Fewer regulations in western Kansas

Counties in far northwest Kansas near the Nebraska border and in far west Kansas along the Colorado border tended to be the states without any regulations, and the authors point out those areas tend to be located the farthest from transmission capability. 

There is a moratorium on development in counties in southern and central Kansas, what the authors refer to as the I-135 corridor. The area includes the state’s largest city, Wichita, and suburbanizing areas along the interstate highway. The Flint Hills region in center of the state also featured moratoriums for conservation purposes of preserving a revered ecosystem.

Counties in the southwestern to central part of the state tended to have enabling regulations, the authors found, as did rural counties in the central part of Kansas. 

When examining what might influence the regulations, researchers found that counties that rely heavily on agriculture tended to have enabling regulations, while counties with suburban populations and areas with higher property values were more likely to have blocking regulations. 

Notably, voting patterns of counties, fossil fuel production and wind energy potential did not predict what type of regulations were in place.

Of the counties with enabling regulations, most tended to include them within their zoning regulations. About 26% opted for one-time development agreements with wind developers, but there was no clear clustering of counties using either approach. Counties tended to focus more on spatially oriented considerations, as project size limitations were more common in regulations than nuisance considerations such as noise.

The study, written by Ian Njuguna, doctoral candidate at Arizona State University and a KU Master’s of Urban Planning alum; Lyles; Uma Outka, William R. Scott Professor of Law; Elise Harrington and Fayola Jacobs of the University of Minnesota; and Nadia Ahmad of Barry University, was published in the journal Sustainability.

Njuguna and Lyles have presented the findings over the last year at events for Future Forward: The Kansas Energy Economy, the KU Economic Policy Conference, Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning in Seattle, the Urban Affairs Association in Vancouver and the Barry University School of Law’s Just Energy Transitions & Place Workshop in Orlando, Florida.

Expanding solar, wind energy research beyond Kansas

The researchers have also begun to gather data on solar energy regulations and wind energy regulations by county beyond Kansas. They will analyze the findings in future research both to learn more about the current state of green energy transition and where governments and developers are trending with wind and solar, which will both be increasingly important as the rise of artificial intelligence necessitates development of data centers, which consume large amounts of energy, Lyles said.

The authors write that the results of the current study show Kansas is in a tumultuous phase of wind energy development, with a “patchwork quilt” of regulations, as expected. However, the findings, as well as the Kansas Energy Transition Atlas, can help those in the state and beyond look to their neighbors to see what approaches have worked.

“What we’re doing in Kansas could propagate to the benefit of the entire Plains region as it has the most wind potential in the nation,” Lyles said. “For counties to be able to see how other counties form their wind energy regulations helps. In the age of social media, decision-makers encounter limited fact checking and even strategic disinformation. With a tool like this, policymakers can see exactly what is working or not in their neighboring counties. It can also tell them what the next topics of debate will be and what to expect. It can provide clarity on one piece of the bigger puzzle and help guide better decisions.”