Wind and Solar Energy Leasing in Ford County, Illinois

What's already built

Ford County hosts two operating utility-scale wind farms. Pioneer Trail Wind Farm -- 94 turbines rated at 1.6 MW each, roughly 150 MW total, spanning Ford and neighboring Iroquois Counties along about 10 miles of Illinois Route 9 between Paxton and Rankin -- has been generating since October 2011, owned by RWE (through its 2019 merger with original developer E.ON Climate & Renewables). The turbines stand roughly 400 feet tall.

A second project, developed by Apex Clean Energy under the name Ford Ridge Wind (and referred to as the Ford County Wind Farm once operational), reached 121.26 MW across roughly 46 turbines and began commercial operation in March 2022. Ørsted announced its acquisition of the project from Ares Management-managed funds in May 2022. The project has power purchase agreements with Mars Incorporated, Silgan Containers, and BHJ USA, and its developers estimated more than $36 million in new local government revenue and roughly $45 million in landowner lease payments over the project's life. It also obtained a federal Incidental Take Permit for the Indiana bat and northern long-eared bat, with post-construction wildlife monitoring conducted under U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service oversight -- worth knowing if you're evaluating land near this specific project, since bat-monitoring conditions can affect turbine curtailment schedules.

If you're buying land in Ford County -- whether or not the listing mentions it -- pull the parcel's recorded documents at the Ford County Clerk & Recorder's office and ask specifically whether any wind lease, easement, or collector-line agreement is recorded against it. These agreements don't always show up in a standard title-search summary and don't necessarily change how the surface looks or is farmed day to day.

A genuinely contested permitting history on the second project

The Ford Ridge/Ford County Wind Farm's path to construction was not a routine approval. When Apex Clean Energy submitted building-permit applications in September 2020, the Ford County zoning officer initially denied them, citing discrepancies between what had originally been approved back in 2009 and what Apex actually proposed to build in 2020 -- larger turbines, taller towers, different rotor diameters, a missing updated noise study, and relocated tower positions. In March 2021, the zoning officer reversed that denial and issued the permits, stating (per reporting on the decision) that given the county's own actions over the preceding 12 years, the original denial was unlikely to survive an appeal or a court challenge, and that he had a duty to taxpayers, landowners, and the developer to follow the law as he now understood it.

Several residents pursued legal appeals of that reversal. Reporting on a June 2024 court decision indicates the zoning approvals for the project were ultimately upheld. We were not able to directly read the underlying court opinion or docket this research pass -- this narrative is drawn from a news aggregator syndicating local reporting and a law-firm blog summary of the decision, both accessed via search snippet rather than a full verbatim read. If a specific parcel you're evaluating is near this project, or if the outcome of that litigation matters to your due diligence, ask Ford County Zoning directly for the current, final status of the permits and any related court record.

A larger third project, still early and unnamed

A further wind project -- reportedly up to 150 MW, from developer Renewable Energy Systems (RES), potentially spanning parts of Ford, Iroquois, Champaign, and Livingston Counties -- was described in local reporting as being in early-stage development, without a final project name, footprint, or timeline as of the most recent coverage found in this research pass. If you're evaluating land in the part of the county where this project might be sited, treat any information about it as preliminary and confirm current status directly with Ford County Zoning.

The state law limiting what Ford 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 setbacks, turbine height, decommissioning requirements, drainage plans, and treatment of agricultural land -- that a county's own ordinance cannot exceed in restrictiveness. The law also bars counties from imposing outright moratoriums on wind or solar development and requires a public hearing within 45 days of an application being submitted.

Ford County's zoning ordinance was itself revised in February 2022 -- around the same time the Ford Ridge project was completing construction, and roughly a year before PA 102-1123's statewide standards took effect. We were not able to independently confirm the exact setback distances, decommissioning-bond formula, or other specific figures in Ford County's current wind/solar zoning provisions during this research pass, since direct access to the county's zoning site was blocked; confirm current, specific ordinance language directly with Ford County Zoning before relying on any particular figure, especially given how much this county's wind-permitting posture has already shifted once.

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

If you're the landowner being approached about a new lease: understand that Ford 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 pads only, or also access roads, collector-line corridors, and setback buffers on surrounding acreage you'd otherwise farm normally), and who bears decommissioning cost if the developer becomes insolvent are all matters of private contract. Given this county's actual litigation history over one project's permits, it's also worth asking a prospective developer directly about the current legal status of any permits tied to your specific site before signing.

If you're buying land already subject to a recorded wind lease or easement -- whether tied to Pioneer Trail, Ford Ridge/Ford County Wind, or a future RES project -- pull the actual recorded document from the Ford County Clerk & 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 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 for that specific turbine or project. If the parcel is near the Ford Ridge/Ford County Wind project specifically, also ask about the status of the Incidental Take Permit's bat-monitoring and curtailment requirements, since those can affect turbine operating hours near a residence.