Wind and Solar Leasing in Pulaski County, Indiana

Mammoth Solar: real scale, not a proposal on paper

Doral Renewables' Mammoth Solar project spans roughly 13,000 acres across Pulaski and neighboring Starke Counties, with a reported nameplate capacity around 1,600 megawatts DC (1,300 megawatts AC) -- construction-industry coverage has described it as the largest solar farm under construction in the United States, with later phases targeting commercial operation in the fourth quarter of 2026 and beyond. This isn't a proposal still working through approvals; it's an active, partly operating project that has already reshaped a meaningful share of Pulaski County's land base and drawn national attention to the county specifically because of its scale.

Part of the site also functions as a genuine agrivoltaics demonstration: roughly 2,500 sheep, along with some pigs and chickens, graze among the panels on about 1,200 of the project's acres, eating vegetation that grows beneath and around the equipment and using the panels' shade. For a landowner in the surrounding area, Mammoth Solar's presence is a real, tangible reference point -- you can point to an actual operating project nearby rather than a hypothetical when evaluating what a lease offer on your own land might realistically involve, from construction timelines to what the finished site actually looks and functions like.

A moratorium the Plan Commission wanted, but commissioners rejected

Pulaski County's political reaction to this scale of development has been genuinely split, and that split is worth understanding before signing any lease. The county's Advisory Plan Commission voted unanimously, 6-0, to recommend a 12-month moratorium on new commercial solar energy systems -- but the Board of Commissioners then rejected that recommended moratorium by a 2-1 vote, meaning new commercial solar proposals have continued to be allowed to move forward despite the Plan Commission's own unanimous call to pause. A local resident group organized specifically as "Pulaski County Against Solar" has continued to push back publicly, and separately, county officials have discussed (without adopting, per this research pass) further moratoriums covering battery energy storage systems, carbon capture projects, and data centers.

For a landowner weighing a lease offer, that 6-0-versus-2-1 split matters: it signals that the county's technical planning staff and citizen commission have real reservations about the pace of solar development even while the elected Board of Commissioners has kept approvals open. That doesn't mean a specific project won't get approved, but it does mean you should expect a possibly more contentious public hearing process than in a county with unified official support for solar, and that the political landscape here could shift again if commissioner composition or public sentiment changes before your project reaches a vote.

A real, specific setback rule -- and what to check in any lease

Pulaski County's zoning ordinance includes a specific commercial solar setback of 500 feet from the property lines of nonparticipating landowners -- meaningfully stricter than the roughly 250-foot setback from dwellings the state has recommended as a general baseline. That 500-foot figure is a real, checkable number: if you're a participating landowner considering leasing acreage, ask how the developer's proposed layout treats that setback relative to your own property lines and any neighboring nonparticipating parcels, since it directly affects how much of your land can actually host equipment.

Because this is such a fast-moving, actively contested situation -- a 6-0 moratorium recommendation rejected 2-1, additional moratorium discussions on other technologies still ongoing, and organized citizen opposition -- confirm the county's current zoning terms and any pending ordinance changes directly with the Advisory Plan Commission before relying on a developer's characterization of what's required or permitted. A lease agreement's terms are separate from the county's zoning rules, so have any specific lease or option contract reviewed independently by an attorney regardless of what the county currently allows.

• Confirm the county's current commercial-solar setback and any other zoning-ordinance terms directly with the Advisory Plan Commission, since this area has seen active, recent policy debate
• Ask how a proposed project layout treats the 500-foot nonparticipating-property-line setback relative to your specific parcel
• Ask whether any additional county moratorium (on battery storage, carbon capture, or data centers) could affect a related component of a proposed project on your land
• Have an attorney independently review any lease or option agreement, since zoning compliance and contract terms are separate questions