Volume 11, Issue 1 - Special Issue: Symposium on “The Power of Wind: Energy and Natural Disasters”

A number of factors have contributed to the rapid growth of wind power capacity in Illinois from 50 MW in 2003 to 3,334.91 MW in 2012, including: federal and state policies, energy security, energy costs, environmental benefits, economic development opportunities, and state-specific factors. One key policy driver in Illinois was the passage of the Illinois Power Agency Act in 2007, which included a renewable portfolio standard of 25 % by 2025, 75 % of the renewable energy resources employed to meet the renewable portfolio standard were designated to wind energy. This study analyzes the economic impacts from the 23 wind projects in Illinois that exceed 50 MW of capacity. These wind projects account for 3,334.91 MW or 99 % of the state’s wind energy generating capacity. Using the JEDI input-output model, the 23 largest wind farms in Illinois created approximately 19,047 full-time equivalent jobs during construction periods with a total payroll of over $1.1 billion. In addition, approximately 814 permanent jobs in rural Illinois areas with a total annual payroll of nearly $48 million are supported. Furthermore, wind farms generated roughly $28.5 million in annual property taxes for local economies as well as $13 million annually in extra income for Illinois landowners who lease their land to wind farm developers. The lifetime total economic benefit of the 23 wind farm projects is estimated at $5.98 billion.

Tornadoes, hurricanes, and other extreme winds cause deaths, injuries, and millions, if not billions, of dollars in damages every year in the United States. Mitigation is necessary to reduce the loss of life, anxiety and suffering, and economic losses. But how much are people willing to invest in their peace of mind? Policy makers typically use the range of $1 million to $10 million per life saved to determine whether a policy that would save lives should be implemented. Individuals have shown that they are willing to pay more for homes with upgrades for mitigation and safety even though they would have no insurance incentive and it is likely that the added cost only affords them peace of mind.

Windstorms can leave massive damage as they march across a helpless region. As population increases in areas prone to windstorms, damage only escalates. Most economic impacts are local but some storms are large enough to create ripple effects felt thousands of miles away. This paper examines one such storm, Hurricane Andrew, and the effect it had on a common construction material, plywood. It finds that the national price of plywood increased sharply after Andrew with no explanation other than the hurricane itself.

Each year, hurricanes cause massive amounts of damage around the world. The losses caused by hurricane exceed insurance company’s capacity. This paper focused on analyzing the current financial product in the market which could help transfer the hurricane risk. At the last, the author proposed to develop Hurricane Resiliency Index, it could serve as a key basis to measure the capacity of a community to withstand, respond to, and recover from hurricanes.

This paper surveys the literature on the value of current and potentially improved hurricane forecasts from the National Hurricane Center. Research on the societal impacts of hurricanes demonstrates that forecasts are likely generating substantial benefits to society in a variety of uses, including saving lives in the U. S. and across the Carribean and Eastern Pacific, reducing the cost of evacuations, improving supply chain management, and in the transportation and energy production and distribution sectors. The existing literature, however, fails generally to quantify the benefits with rigor sufficient for an academic quality benefit-cost analysis of hurricane forecasts. The paper offers several suggestions for future research to more precisely estimate the benefits attributable to current or improved forecasts.