Free as the Wind

As we shift to different sources of energy, property rights will need to be clearly defined:

Who Owns the Wind?, by Sebastian Knauer, Spiegel: It's ... a major problem for the German legal system, including a court in Leipzig that is currently hearing a case involving a dispute between the operators of two wind turbine facilities. Who owns the wind? The parties in the dispute are the owner of a wind farm ... and a businessman, who wants to set up a bigger wind farm in the immediate vicinity.

The crux of the case is earnings. When two wind turbines are located too close to one another ... "This wind theft naturally affects profits," Leipzig lawyer Martin Maslaton says, justifying his client's complaint ... According to the plaintiff's own calculations, there has been a 15 percent drop in income.

In recent years wind turbines have become a new fixture in German courts, with legal disputes over issues such as the shadows cast by the turbines, the noise or the destruction of the landscape. But the current dispute over the ownership of wind is even more fundamental.