Errors and Excesses in the NREL's JEDI-WIM Model that Provides Estimates of the State or Local Economic Impact of "Wind Farms"

Author Glenn Schleede addresses the shortcomings of a model developed by NREL (a 'laboratory' of the DOE)that purports to permit the calculation of the state or local economic impact from the building of a potential wind farm. The model, known as "Jobs and Economic Development Impact" (JEDI), allows the user to employ various default assumptions or to change these assumptions to fit a particular wind project. Schleede contends that (1)use of the default assumptions will provide unrealistically high benefits and (2) key factors that offset benefits are not reflected in the model. To illustrate the model's deficiencies, Schleede applies it as well as more realistic assumptions to a proposed project in Highland County, Virginia.