Wind and Solar Energy Leasing in DeKalb County, Illinois

What's already built

DeKalb County's own records describe approving a commercial wind farm of 119 wind towers, each roughly 263 feet tall with a 1.5-megawatt generating capacity, across approximately 22,000 acres of unincorporated Shabbona, Milan, and Afton Townships -- the project developed as FPL Energy Illinois Wind LLC, in the northern part of the county. At 119 turbines and 1.5 MW apiece, that's on the order of 175-180 megawatts of installed capacity, and a substantial, long-operating footprint of farmland already sitting under a recorded wind lease or easement covering turbine pads, access roads, and underground collector lines. Third-party production-tracking data shows the project has continued generating power in recent reporting periods, so this isn't a mothballed or decommissioned project.

If you're buying land in DeKalb County -- whether or not the listing mentions it -- pull the parcel's recorded documents at the DeKalb County Recorder's Office and ask specifically whether any wind lease, easement, or collector-line agreement is recorded against it. Wind leases and easements often cover far more acreage than the turbine pad itself (setback buffers, access-road corridors, and underground line easements can reach across a large share of a farmed parcel) and don't always change how the surface looks or is farmed day to day, so a standard visual inspection or a cursory title summary may not surface them.

Solar development is growing alongside wind

Local reporting via the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program has described DeKalb County farmers turning to solar development on portions of their land, in some cases citing better per-acre financial returns than continuing to farm row crops on that ground. This mirrors a broader statewide trend of Illinois farmland being leased for utility-scale and community solar alongside more established wind development -- if you're evaluating land specifically for its solar-lease potential, or buying land where a solar lease may already be in place, the same recorded-document check described above for wind leases applies equally to solar easements.

The state law limiting what DeKalb County can require

Illinois counties don't have unlimited authority to write their own wind and solar rules. Public Act 102-1123, signed by Governor Pritzker on January 27, 2023, amended 55 ILCS 5/5-12020 of the Counties Code to establish statewide siting standards for commercial wind and solar facilities -- covering setback distances, blade-tip heights, decommissioning requirements, drainage plans, and treatment of agricultural land -- that a county's own ordinance cannot exceed in restrictiveness. The law sets a maximum wind-turbine setback of 2.1 times total blade-tip height from the nearest wall of a non-participating residence (a county may set a smaller setback, not a larger one), bars counties from imposing outright moratoriums on wind or solar development, and requires a public hearing within 45 days of an application being submitted.

In practice, this means DeKalb County's own wind/solar zoning provisions -- administered through the Community Development Department's Zoning Ordinance (Chapter 53) -- operate as a local implementation of a state-set ceiling rather than an independent local policy choice. We were not able to independently confirm the exact setback distance, decommissioning-bond formula, or other specific figures DeKalb County's own ordinance actually uses (as opposed to the statewide maximum) during this research pass, since direct access to the county's site was blocked and this session's search allowance was exhausted before that specific detail could be located -- confirm current, specific ordinance language directly with DeKalb County Community Development before relying on any particular figure.

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

For a landowner fielding an actual lease offer, keep the two layers separate: DeKalb County's ordinance (itself capped by the statewide PA 102-1123 ceiling) only sets the regulatory floor -- minimum setbacks, decommissioning requirements -- and has nothing to say about what the lease should pay you. Payment structure and escalation, term length and renewal options, exactly what the easement covers (just the turbine pad, or also access roads, collector lines, and setback buffers eating into acreage you'd otherwise farm), and who's on the hook for decommissioning if the developer goes under are all negotiated contract terms, not zoning questions -- have an attorney who actually works Illinois wind/solar leases review the document before you sign anything, given these deals commonly run 20-30+ years with renewal options attached.

If you're buying land already subject to a recorded wind or solar lease or easement in DeKalb County, pull the actual recorded document from the DeKalb 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 wind and solar leases 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 in place -- DeKalb County Community Development can confirm whether a decommissioning bond or escrow is on file for a given project.