Wind and Solar Energy Leasing in White County, Indiana

Meadow Lake's biggest single-county share -- and a striking tax figure

The roughly 801-megawatt, 414-turbine Meadow Lake Wind Farm complex spans White, Benton, and Jasper Counties, but White County holds the largest single share of it. That concentration shows up directly in the county's finances: Meadow Lake is reported to account for more than 30% of White County's total commercial property tax intake -- a figure that underscores just how central one wind-energy complex has become to the county's tax base, well beyond what a typical rural Indiana county derives from any single commercial taxpayer.

For a landowner, that scale means the wind-lease and easement landscape here isn't a recent or speculative development -- Meadow Lake has been operating and expanding across its six phases for over a decade, and a meaningful share of White County farmland already carries a recorded lease, easement, or collector-line agreement tied to it, whether or not there's a visible turbine on the specific parcel in question.

White County's own projects: Indiana Crossroads I & II, Rosewater, and a solar park

Beyond its share of Meadow Lake, White County hosts a cluster of wind and solar projects developed by NIPSCO and EDP Renewables together that sit wholly or primarily within the county's own borders. Indiana Crossroads I is a fully operational 302-megawatt wind farm with 72 turbines, now owned by NIPSCO. Indiana Crossroads II is a follow-on 202-megawatt project for which EDP Renewables began construction in 2022. The Rosewater Wind Farm, sited along US 24 west of Reynolds, adds another 102 megawatts across 25 turbines and interconnects at NIPSCO's own Reynolds substation. Rounding out the cluster, the Indiana Crossroads Solar Park is a 200-megawatt solar facility developed alongside the wind projects.

Taken together with Meadow Lake, this is one of the densest concentrations of utility-scale wind and solar infrastructure anywhere in Indiana sitting substantially inside a single county. If you're evaluating a lease offer here, it's worth understanding that NIPSCO and EDP Renewables already have an extensive, ongoing operating relationship with White County government -- this isn't a first-time developer testing unfamiliar territory, which can cut both ways for a landowner weighing the terms of a specific offer.

The county is actively rewriting its rules -- including for carbon sequestration

White County's Area Plan Commission has kept pace with this level of development by actively amending its zoning ordinance: amendment #A79 addresses renewable energy standards, and #A81 addresses battery storage fields -- both a response to how the underlying technology and project mix (wind, solar, and now battery storage) has evolved since the county's core zoning ordinance was last comprehensively updated in 2021.

More unusually, the county has also drafted a separate zoning ordinance amendment, #A72, specifically addressing carbon sequestration -- the underground injection and storage of captured carbon dioxide -- discussed at Area Plan Commission and commissioners' meetings through the end of 2024. The draft, which borrowed ordinance language from neighboring Newton County, addresses the county's authority over wellhead and pipeline siting for this kind of infrastructure and includes a fee schedule intended to cover administrative review costs. This research pass could not confirm whether the carbon sequestration ordinance was ultimately adopted, so if that possibility is relevant to your parcel -- because of its location or because you've been approached about it -- confirm current status directly with the Area Plan Commission rather than assuming the 2024 draft reflects final, governing rules.

What to check before buying or signing a lease

Given how much of White County's land base already touches wind, solar, or potentially carbon-sequestration infrastructure, confirm three things directly before buying or signing anything: whether any wind lease, solar lease, easement, or collector-line agreement is already recorded against the specific parcel (White County Recorder's Office); whether the parcel falls within an active project's footprint, a proposed expansion, or a carbon-sequestration project area (White County Area Plan Commission, which also maintains GIS mapping tools); and how an existing lease's terms -- payment structure, term length, and decommissioning obligations -- transfer to a new owner at closing, a question for your real-estate attorney rather than the county.