Wind and Solar Energy Leasing in Champaign County, Illinois

What's already built: California Ridge Wind Farm

California Ridge Wind Farm, owned by Invenergy, is a 134-turbine project completed in December 2012, with turbines rated at 1.6 MW each for roughly 217 MW of total capacity. The project spans eastern Champaign County and western Vermilion County, sited across an estimated 27,700 acres of private land -- roughly 8,700 acres in Champaign County and 19,000 in Vermilion County -- with around 30 of the 134 turbines actually standing in northeastern Champaign County. That means a meaningful, mapped band of northeastern Champaign County farmland has sat under a recorded wind lease or easement for over a decade, even where the surface still looks and farms like ordinary cropland.

If you're buying land in northeastern Champaign County specifically, pull the parcel's recorded documents at the Champaign County Recorder's Office and ask directly whether a California Ridge lease, easement, or collector-line agreement is recorded against it -- these don't always surface in a standard listing or a quick title summary.

What's proposed: a new wind project, still early

Apex Clean Energy has separately been in discussions with Champaign County landowners about a new wind project reported under the name Open Prairie Wind, targeting the southern part of the county for its wind resource and proximity to transmission infrastructure. As of the most recent reporting found in this research pass, no formal permit application had been filed with Champaign County, and construction was described as several years away -- meaning any specific turbine layout, lease terms, or timeline should be treated as preliminary and unconfirmed. If you're evaluating land in southern Champaign County and have been approached about a lease, ask directly where the project actually stands in Champaign County's own zoning/permitting process before treating any terms as final.

Solar: a genuine flashpoint, decided by narrow votes

Solar has generated more local controversy than wind in recent years. In January 2019, the county board voted to approve a roughly 1,191-acre, 150 MW solar farm proposed by BayWa r.e. on a site east of Sidney -- at the time, described as the largest proposed solar farm in Illinois. More recently, a much smaller (~36-acre, roughly 5 MW) project near Mahomet, tied to Summit Ridge Energy, drew sustained neighborhood opposition over its proximity to the Spring Lake and Bryarfield Acres subdivisions; the county board tabled the vote once before ultimately approving the special-use permit by an 11-10 margin after a contentious debate. Both cases illustrate the same pattern: Champaign County's zoning process treats these as genuine, closely contested public hearings rather than routine approvals, even for comparatively small projects.

If you're a landowner considering a solar lease, or a buyer evaluating land near a proposed site, expect a real public process -- neighbor opposition, a Zoning Board of Appeals recommendation, and a county board vote that has gone as narrowly as a single vote in at least one recent case. Check the status of any specific project directly with the Champaign County Department of Planning and Zoning rather than relying on a developer's timeline.

The state law limiting what Champaign County can require

Illinois counties don't have unlimited authority to write their own wind and solar rules. Public Act 102-1123, signed January 27, 2023, amended 55 ILCS 5/5-12020 of the Counties Code to set statewide siting standards -- covering setbacks, blade-tip heights, decommissioning, drainage, and agricultural-land treatment -- that a county's own ordinance cannot exceed in restrictiveness, and it bars counties from imposing outright moratoriums on wind or solar development. Champaign County's Environment & Land Use Committee ran a documented ordinance-amendment process in 2023, including a formal redline comparison of the county's PV-solar-farm rules against the new state standards, to bring its own ordinance into compliance. In practice, this means the county's own zoning ordinance operates as a local implementation of a state-set ceiling rather than a fully independent local policy choice.

If you've been offered a lease, or are buying land already under one

If you're the landowner being approached: Champaign County's ordinance (bounded by the PA 102-1123 statewide ceiling) sets the regulatory floor on setbacks and decommissioning, not the lease's financial terms. Payment structure and escalation, term length and renewal options, easement scope (turbine or panel footprint only, or also access roads, collector-line corridors, and buffer acreage you'd otherwise farm normally), and who bears decommissioning cost if the developer becomes insolvent are all matters of private contract -- review by an attorney experienced in Illinois wind/solar leases is worth the cost, especially given how long these leases typically run.

If you're buying land already subject to a recorded wind or solar lease or easement -- whether tied to California Ridge or a solar project -- pull the actual recorded document from the Champaign County Recorder rather than relying on a listing summary. Confirm what portion of the parcel is actually restricted, whether the lease/easement transfers automatically to you as the new owner (most are structured to run with the land), what ongoing payments (if any) you'd be entitled to, and whether financial security for eventual decommissioning is actually on file with the county for that specific project.