Wind and Solar Leasing in Starke County, Indiana

Mammoth North Solar: already built, not still under construction

The phase of the Mammoth Solar development sited specifically in Starke County -- known as Mammoth North Solar -- spans roughly 4,500 acres near Knox and generates around 400 megawatts. That's a genuinely different stage of the project than what's happening across the county line in Pulaski County, where later phases are still under construction: Starke County's own phase was completed and is already operating. For a landowner near the existing footprint, that means you can look at an actual finished project rather than a construction site when evaluating what a similar lease might mean for your own land -- how the completed installation looks, how it's maintained, and what ongoing presence (access roads, maintenance traffic, substation activity) an operating solar farm actually carries once construction wraps up.

Starke County isn't a one-developer county on solar, either. Two additional companies -- NextEra Energy and Hoosier Solar -- have moved their own, separate projects through the county's Plan Commission permitting process, meaning multiple solar developers have real, distinct permit files in Starke County rather than a single company holding the field. If you're fielding a lease inquiry, it's worth confirming which developer is actually approaching you and whether their project has already cleared the county's technical review and permitting steps, since the county's history shows real variation in how far along different solar proposals have gotten.

A moratorium that exempted the developers already in the pipeline

In December 2024, Starke County commissioners voted in favor of a 12-month moratorium on new solar development -- but the moratorium specifically carved out Mammoth Solar, NextEra, and Hoosier Solar, since all three already had projects moving through the county's permitting process at the time. In practice, that meant the moratorium mainly affected brand-new, not-yet-filed proposals rather than pausing the developments already underway, which is a meaningfully different outcome than a blanket pause on all solar activity in the county.

That period also produced a real, specific local controversy worth knowing about if you're weighing a lease with any of the county's solar developers: residents raised public concerns that documents tied to the permitted projects -- including a tax-abatement form -- appeared to be missing from the county's files. The county attorney subsequently confirmed that required bonds and most documents were, in fact, on file for the two solar companies permitted at the county level, with only the tax-abatement form still outstanding as of that reporting. The episode is a useful reminder that a county's own paper trail on a solar project -- bonds, abatement agreements, permits -- is worth asking to see directly rather than assuming it's complete, even after a project has cleared its main approvals.

What to check before signing anything

Because Starke County has now handled multiple solar developers through real permitting and moratorium cycles, a landowner here has more of a track record to check against than in a county encountering commercial solar for the first time. That's an advantage -- but it also means confirming a specific developer's current standing with the Plan Commission, rather than assuming a company's reputation elsewhere in Indiana carries over automatically to how its Starke County project has actually been permitted, bonded, and taxed.

• Confirm which company is actually proposing the lease, and whether its project has cleared Starke County's technical review and permitting process or is still pending
• Ask to see the county's own bonding and tax-abatement documentation for the specific project rather than relying on the developer's own summary, given the county's documented 2024-2025 paperwork controversy
• Confirm the current status of any county solar moratorium and whether a new, not-yet-permitted project would be affected by it
• Have an attorney independently review any lease or option agreement's terms, since a completed nearby project's existence doesn't guarantee equivalent terms in a new lease