Wind & Solar Leasing in Lee County, Iowa

Lee County adopted a dedicated ordinance -- Chapter 13 of Title VI, Property and Land Use -- to govern commercial-scale wind, solar, and battery energy projects in the unincorporated county. It's not a theoretical framework: the county is now home to the roughly 900-acre, 150-megawatt Wever Solar Project, reported as the largest solar development in Iowa history.

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

Chapter 13: how Lee County regulates commercial wind, solar, and battery systems

Lee County's Code of Ordinances includes Chapter 13 (Title VI, Property and Land Use), titled Regulations for the Siting and Operation of Wind, Solar, and Battery Energy Systems. It applies specifically to commercial-scale projects -- Commercial Wind Energy Systems (C-WES), Commercial Solar Energy Systems (C-SES), and Commercial Battery Energy Storage Systems (C-BESS) -- sited anywhere in unincorporated Lee County, and does not apply to land within incorporated municipalities. The ordinance's stated purpose is to protect public health, safety, and community welfare while establishing minimum standards for siting, placement, construction, installation, operation, maintenance, and eventual decommissioning of these systems.

Two concrete standards worth knowing if you're evaluating a lease offer or a nearby project: solar arrays under a C-SES permit are capped at 15 feet in height, and every permit application must be accompanied by financial security sized to cover the actual cost of decommissioning -- the complete removal of all system components -- once the project's useful life ends or it's abandoned. The ordinance also includes a formal waiver process: a landowner can sign and date a waiver addressing setbacks or other minimum requirements that would otherwise apply to a project on their land, which is the mechanism a developer would use to site a project closer to a participating landowner's own property line or structures than the default ordinance would normally allow.

The Wever Solar Project: a real, quantified precedent

Lee County is home to the Wever Solar Project, developed by Alliant Energy and reported as the largest solar development in Iowa history. The project covers roughly 900 acres and generates 150 megawatts of capacity -- enough to power an estimated 30,000 homes annually -- split across two arrays of 90 MW and 60 MW sited about four miles apart, which required coordinated electrical integration between the two sites. The project received its electric generating certificate from the Iowa Utilities Board in April 2023 and went into commercial service in November 2024. County approval was granted in December 2022, after which the project moved through Chapter 13's permitting process.

One detail specific to this project's site is worth knowing if your own parcel sits in similar terrain: part of the Wever Solar Project is located in the floodplain between the Skunk and Mississippi Rivers, and the developer built a 500-year flood-preparedness drainage system, including advanced drain tile, specifically to manage that environmentally sensitive siting. If you're a landowner in Lee County's river-bottom areas being approached about a solar or battery-storage lease, that precedent shows a developer can and did engineer around floodplain constraints here -- but it also means your own due diligence should include how a proposed project's design accounts for your parcel's specific flood-hazard status, not just its acreage and transmission access.

What this means if you're considering a lease -- or buying land near an existing project

If a developer approaches you about leasing land in Lee County for a commercial wind, solar, or battery project, ask specifically: what decommissioning financial security is being posted and who administers it if the developer's business fails mid-lease; whether any setback waiver is being requested from you or a neighboring landowner as part of the site plan; and how the project's design addresses floodplain status if your land is anywhere near the Mississippi, Skunk, or Des Moines Rivers. If you're instead buying land near the existing Wever Solar Project or another future project site, ask the seller and the county whether any easements, setback waivers, or decommissioning obligations run with the land you're purchasing -- these can be recorded against a parcel and may affect a neighboring landowner's own future development options even if the project itself sits entirely on adjacent land.

Because Chapter 13 is a relatively specific, purpose-built ordinance rather than a generic zoning overlay, confirm its current text and any amendments directly with the Lee County Auditor's office before relying on a summary -- ordinances like this one are periodically revised as counties gain experience with real projects, and Lee County has direct, recent experience with a project of real scale.

Wind and Solar Leasing in Lee County

Chapter 13: how Lee County regulates commercial wind, solar, and battery systems

The Wever Solar Project: a real, quantified precedent

What this means if you're considering a lease -- or buying land near an existing project

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