Wind Energy Leasing in Marshall County, Illinois

What's already built

The Camp Grove Wind Farm is a 100-turbine, 150 MW facility straddling the Marshall/Stark county line north of Peoria; 60 of its GE 1.5 MW turbines sit in Marshall County, with the remaining 40 in Stark County. The project has been generating power since November 2007 -- nearly two decades of operating history, which means recorded easements covering turbine pads, access roads, and underground collector lines have likely already changed hands at least once as the underlying farmland has been bought and sold.

If you're buying land in the part of the county where Camp Grove sits, pull the parcel's recorded documents at the Marshall County Clerk & Recorder's office (122 North Prairie Street, Lacon) and ask specifically whether a wind lease, easement, or collector-line agreement is recorded against it -- these don't always surface in a standard title-search summary and don't necessarily change how the surface looks or farms day to day.

A more recent county approval: the Bennington Wind Project

In November 2019, the Marshall County Board granted a special use permit to the Bennington Wind Project -- 33 turbines at roughly 2.8 MW each, proposed by Minonk Stewardship Wind LLC (a joint venture of Chicago-based Akuo Energy USA and Tiskilwa-based Stewardship Energy LLC) in Bennington Township, southeast of Toluca and just west of Interstate 39. Contemporaneous reporting cited an estimated $1.1 million in new property tax revenue in the project's first year of operation and roughly $22.4 million over its projected 30-year life.

If you're evaluating land in or near Bennington Township, confirm the project's current build-out status directly with the Marshall County Zoning Office -- a 2019 special use permit approval doesn't by itself tell you how many turbines have actually been constructed, whether the project reached its full 33-turbine scope, or whether a specific parcel ended up inside the leased footprint.

A mix-up worth avoiding: there's another Marshall County

A general search for "Marshall County wind farm" surfaces two additional projects that have nothing to do with this county: a "Laurel Wind Farm" (MidAmerican Energy, roughly 52 turbines and 119.6 MW) and a proposed "Marshall Wind Energy Center" (Invenergy, 226 MW). Both belong to Marshall County, Iowa -- a same-named county roughly 250 miles away, near Marshalltown, Iowa. One source turned up in this research explicitly clarified that "Marshall County is in Iowa, not Illinois" regarding the MidAmerican project, and the Invenergy coverage came from the Times Republican, which is Marshalltown, Iowa's daily newspaper, not an Illinois outlet.

If a lease offer, news article, or online listing references either of these projects in connection with land in Illinois, treat that as a red flag worth double-checking directly with the Marshall County (Illinois) Zoning Office before relying on it.

The state law limiting what Marshall 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, and treatment of agricultural land -- and bars counties from imposing outright moratoriums on wind or solar development. Marshall County's own zoning ordinance operates within that statewide ceiling; we were not able to independently confirm the county's exact current setback distance or decommissioning-bond formula during this research pass, since direct access to the county's own site was blocked. Confirm current, specific ordinance language directly with the Marshall County Zoning Office before relying on any particular figure.

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

A new lease offer here is governed by two separate layers: Marshall County's own ordinance, capped by the statewide PA 102-1123 ceiling, only sets the regulatory floor on things like setbacks and decommissioning -- it says nothing about what you'd actually get paid. Payment amount and escalation over time, how long the term runs and whether the developer can renew it, exactly what the easement covers (just the turbine pad, or also the access road and collector-line corridor cutting across the rest of your acreage), and who's on the hook for decommissioning costs if the developer goes under are all points you negotiate directly, ideally with an attorney who has actually reviewed Illinois wind leases before.

If you're buying land already subject to a recorded wind lease or easement -- whether tied to Camp Grove or Bennington -- pull the actual recorded document from the Marshall 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 run with the land), what ongoing payments (if any) you'd be entitled to, and whether financial security for eventual decommissioning is on file for that specific project.