Wind & Solar Leasing in Livingston County, IL: Farms & Rules

Livingston County has real, multi-decade wind development on the ground -- but it's also a county where a large proposal was recently put to a vote and turned down. If you've been offered a lease, are buying land already under one, or are near a proposed project, here's what's actually built, what's proposed, and how contested wind siting can get here.

This page covers what's specific to Livingston County. For the general explanation, see the national guide.

What's already operating: 300 MW since 2010, plus an established second project

The Streator Cayuga Ridge South Wind Farm, near Odell, has been generating power since March 2010: 150 Gamesa G-87 2.0 MW turbines with a combined 300 MW nameplate capacity, owned by Iberdrola Renewables (developed jointly with Mortenson and operated as Streator-Cayuga Ridge Wind Power LLC). The project received a $170 million grant through the U.S. Treasury's Section 1603 grants-in-lieu-of-tax-credits program -- more than 15 years of continuous operation on the ground here.

The Panther Grove Wind Facility, spanning Woodford and Livingston Counties, represents a further, separate investment reported at more than $1 billion by Global Energy Monitor. If you're buying land in Livingston County -- whether or not the listing mentions it -- pull the parcel's recorded documents at the County Clerk and Recorder's office and ask specifically whether any wind lease, easement, or collector-line agreement is recorded against it, since these don't always show up in a standard title search summary.

What's expanding and what's newly proposed

Panther Grove 2, filed with the county in October 2024, is a roughly $1 billion expansion west of Pontiac, primarily affecting Rooks Creek, Pike, Nebraska, and Waldo townships: locally reported figures put it at 104 turbines and roughly 468-473 MW of capacity in Livingston County, plus 3 more turbines and 11.5 miles of transmission line in neighboring Woodford County -- enough, per the developer, to power around 157,000 homes. A memorandum of agreement covering environmental and historic-preservation compliance was signed in April 2025, and the proposed commercial operation date tracked in PJM's interconnection queue is around early 2028. (Note: this research pass found some inconsistency across sources on Panther Grove's exact capacity figures -- treat the numbers above as approximate and confirm current project scope directly with the county.)

Heritage Prairie Wind -- developed jointly by Pattern Energy and Repsol Renewables North America, and later expanded under the name Heritage Prairie Renewable -- spans western Kankakee County and northeastern Livingston County. It's a 616.5 MW wind facility representing a $2.1 billion investment (later reported as $2.6 billion for the expanded project), expected to power roughly 180,000 homes and generate an estimated $175 million in new tax revenue for Kankakee and Livingston Counties over the project's life. As of mid-2026 reporting, construction was targeted to begin around mid-2026 with commercial operations beginning in 2028.

The county board has said no before

Livingston County is also a place where a large wind proposal has actually been rejected. Invenergy's Pleasant Ridge Wind Energy Center would have placed 136 to 138 turbines across roughly 30,000 acres in southeastern Livingston County -- spanning the townships of Pleasant Ridge, Forrest, Fayette, Eppards Point, Indian Grove, Chatsworth, Charlotte, Belle Prairie, and Avoca, near Forrest, Fairbury, Strawn, and Chatsworth, with towers standing 431 feet tall. After 34 public meetings, the county's Zoning Board of Appeals voted to deny the special-use permit, and the full county board followed with a 13-9 vote against the project.

This matters for two reasons. If you own land in the townships where Pleasant Ridge was proposed, a rejected project doesn't necessarily mean the door is permanently closed -- developers sometimes return with a modified proposal -- so ask the county directly whether any successor application is pending. And more broadly, this history shows Livingston County's board and zoning process genuinely engage with local opposition rather than approving every proposal that comes through; don't assume a pending application near your land is a foregone conclusion in either direction.

The state law limiting what Livingston County can require

Illinois counties don't have unlimited discretion over commercial wind and solar siting. 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, turbine height, decommissioning, and agricultural-land considerations -- that a county's own ordinance cannot exceed in restrictiveness, and bars counties from imposing outright moratoriums on wind or solar development.

Livingston County's own Wind Energy Conversion System (WECS) ordinance already went further than the state minimum on setbacks well before PA 102-1123: a 2017 amendment increased the required setback from any primary structure from 1,200 feet to six times total tower height or 3,250 feet, whichever is greater -- among the more protective setback rules documented in this research across the Illinois counties reviewed. The ordinance was updated again in February 2024 with a battery energy storage system (BESS) provision, suggesting the county continues to actively revise these rules as project types change. Confirm the county's current, specific ordinance language directly with Regional Planning & Zoning before relying on any particular figure.

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 Livingston County's WECS ordinance (bounded by the PA 102-1123 statewide ceiling, but stricter than it on setbacks) sets the regulatory floor, 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 -- worth reviewing with an attorney experienced in wind leases before signing.

If you're buying land already subject to a recorded wind lease or easement -- tied to Streator Cayuga Ridge South, Panther Grove, Panther Grove 2, or Heritage Prairie -- pull the actual recorded document from the County Clerk and 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, 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.

Wind and Solar Energy Leasing in Livingston County, Illinois

What's already operating: 300 MW since 2010, plus an established second project

What's expanding and what's newly proposed

The county board has said no before

The state law limiting what Livingston County can require

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

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