Solar Leasing in Bourbon County, KS: Deals and a Cancellation

Bourbon County's solar story is more complicated than a single moratorium with three named exceptions. A fourth company signed a development agreement at the same time as the others -- and then the county and that developer canceled it. Here's what's actually still active, who's building it, and what that cancellation should tell you about any lease offer you receive.

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

Four companies signed agreements in October 2024 -- only three survived

On October 31, 2024, Bourbon County entered into development agreements covering solar energy projects with what public reporting identifies as four Delaware-registered companies securing land rights in the county: Tennyson Creek Solar LLC, Tennyson Creek Solar II LLC, Hinton Creek Solar LLC, and Kingbird Solar Energy LLC. Kingbird's own project filings describe a roughly 300-megawatt solar facility with associated battery storage. But that fourth agreement didn't last: Bourbon County and Kingbird Solar canceled their contract on January 20, 2025, according to KOAM News Now's reporting on the county commission's handling of the solar agreements -- months before the county's later 2026 moratorium on new utility-scale energy projects, and well before that moratorium's own list of preserved exemptions was drawn up naming only the three survivors: Tennyson Creek Solar LLC, Tennyson Creek Solar II LLC, and Hinton Creek Solar LLC.

For a landowner or buyer, that sequence is the most useful fact in this whole story: a signed county development agreement with a named solar company, reported at the time as a real 300-megawatt project, was still cancelled within roughly three months. A development agreement or even a signed lease is a meaningful step, but it is not a guarantee that a project proceeds -- and it's worth asking directly, for any parcel pitched as part of a solar development, whether the specific agreement covering it has actually held up or has quietly followed Kingbird's path.

The two active projects: who's building them, and how big

Hinton Creek Solar is being developed by NextEra Energy and is proposed on privately-owned land within the county, with a reported capacity of approximately 400 megawatts of solar generation -- enough, per project reporting, to power roughly 50,000 homes. Its footprint is described as including photovoltaic panels, battery storage, inverters, solar monitoring equipment, substations, collection lines, access roads, temporary construction staging areas, and operation-and-maintenance facilities -- a useful checklist if you're trying to understand what physical infrastructure might eventually sit on or near a specific parcel within the project area.

Tennyson Creek Solar, together with its Tennyson Creek Solar II phase, is reported (via developer Doral Renewables' own project materials) at roughly 300 megawatts of solar generation paired with 200 megawatts of battery storage -- one of the larger combined solar-and-storage proposals reported for this part of southeast Kansas. Both Hinton Creek and Tennyson Creek had their underlying development agreements specifically preserved as exemptions when the county later adopted its 365-day moratorium on new utility-scale energy, crypto-mining, and data-center projects, meaning these two projects' county-level agreements remain the operative, current framework as of this review -- unlike Kingbird's.

What to verify before signing anything or valuing land on a solar premise

If a Bourbon County parcel already carries a lease, easement, or development-agreement obligation tied to Hinton Creek or Tennyson Creek, request a current copy of that specific agreement (Bourbon County posts these documents on its own website) and have it reviewed by an attorney before assuming its terms transfer cleanly with a sale -- development and decommissioning agreements can carry obligations that run with the land or with the seller specifically, and that distinction matters at closing.

If instead a parcel is being marketed on the promise of future solar income with no agreement in hand yet, weigh that promise against two concrete facts documented here: a signed county development agreement (Kingbird's) was cancelled within months in this same county, and the county's current 365-day moratorium means no brand-new utility-scale solar project can be agreed to in Bourbon County today outside the two already-preserved projects. Confirm the moratorium's current status and expiration date directly with the county before treating a future solar lease as a near-term certainty.

Solar Energy Leasing in Bourbon County, Kansas

Four companies signed agreements in October 2024 -- only three survived

The two active projects: who's building them, and how big

What to verify before signing anything or valuing land on a solar premise

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