Wind and Solar Leasing in Montgomery County, Iowa

An indefinite moratorium, not a lack of developer interest

Montgomery County is not a county where wind development has simply never been proposed -- it's one where a specific, large-scale project was actively moving forward and the county's Board of Supervisors chose to stop it. MidAmerican Energy's proposed Silver Creek Wind Farm would have covered roughly 15,000 acres spanning both Montgomery and Pottawattamie counties, a project scale comparable to established wind farms elsewhere in southwest Iowa. In response, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 in November 2023 to extend the county's existing moratorium on new commercial wind energy conversion systems (C-WECs) indefinitely -- not for a fixed review period, but without a defined end date. That's a materially different situation from a county that simply has no wind ordinance yet, or one weighing its first proposal: Montgomery County's board has already seen a concrete project and made an affirmative decision to keep new commercial wind development out.

We could not confirm in this research pass whether the moratorium remains in force as of 2026. This matters because Iowa counties have been genuinely volatile on wind and solar policy over the past two to three years -- some have tightened rules further, others have lifted moratoria and adopted new turbine ordinances, and state-level legislative and legal activity around wind siting has continued to evolve. Do not assume the November 2023 vote is still the county's current policy; a lease, easement, or land purchase decision premised on wind income here needs a fresh, direct confirmation from the Board of Supervisors, not a citation to a several-year-old news article.

What this means if you already hold, or are being offered, a wind lease

If a parcel you're considering already carries a wind-lease agreement predating the moratorium, or if you're a landowner being approached about a new lease, the moratorium's practical effect is on new construction of commercial wind systems -- it does not retroactively void an existing recorded lease or easement, but it does mean any promise of near-term turbine construction, interconnection, or lease-payment activation should be treated with real skepticism until the county's current ordinance status is independently confirmed. A developer or broker citing 'imminent' wind development in Montgomery County needs to explain specifically how that squares with an indefinite construction moratorium that, as of the most recent confirmed vote, the board had no stated plan to lift.

Because the moratorium targets commercial wind energy conversion systems specifically, it's worth confirming directly whether it also covers smaller-scale or accessory wind installations, and whether the county has any separate solar-siting ordinance -- Iowa counties frequently regulate wind and solar under different rules, and a moratorium on commercial wind turbines doesn't necessarily say anything about the county's posture on utility-scale solar leasing.

What to check before relying on wind-lease income here

1. Call the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors directly and ask, in plain terms, whether the November 2023 commercial wind energy conversion system moratorium is still in effect, and if not, what replaced it.
2. Ask specifically whether any successor wind ordinance (with setbacks, noise limits, or a permitting path) has been adopted since 2023, and get a copy if so.
3. If a parcel already carries a recorded wind-lease or easement, pull that document from the County Recorder and read its terms directly -- don't rely on a listing description's summary of what the lease supposedly allows.
4. Ask whether the moratorium (or any successor ordinance) treats commercial wind differently from utility-scale solar leasing, since the county may not regulate the two the same way.
5. If wind-lease income is central to your purchase decision, get that confirmation in writing from the county before closing -- a verbal assurance from a seller or broker about the county's 'openness' to wind development is not a substitute for the board's actual, current ordinance status.