Wind & Solar Leasing in Marshall County, KS: Lease Terms

Marshall County's negotiated approach to wind siting -- covered on the county hub -- is only half the picture for a landowner actually weighing a lease. The Irish Creek Wind project already operating in the county delivers real, documented payments to local landowners, and NextEra's own published easement practices show what a wind lease here typically covers and how much land it actually ties up.

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

What a wind lease is actually worth here, and what it ties up

NextEra's Irish Creek Wind project -- 110 turbines generating up to 300 megawatts near Frankfort -- is documented as delivering approximately $50 million in payments to Marshall County landowners over the life of the lease, according to NextEra's own project materials and regional reporting on the project. That figure covers the pool of participating landowners across the project's footprint, not a single parcel, but it establishes that wind leasing in Marshall County is a real, substantial income source already flowing to local landowners rather than a speculative promise.

On the land itself, NextEra's own landowner-facing guidance states that a wind easement generally covers roughly 60 acres per turbine, but that land largely remains tillable -- a turbine's actual footprint (the pad, access road, and immediate clearance) uses only a small fraction of that acreage, with the rest continuing to support crops or grazing around it. NextEra describes its easement terms as commercially negotiated per project and per landowner, but the terms consistently address the same core items: payment structure, the length of the easement, what other uses the landowner may continue to make of the land, the location and type of access roads and other support facilities the company can build, the condition the land must be returned to if operations end, and each party's specific responsibilities during construction and operation. Any landowner reviewing an offer should expect a real, negotiated document covering each of those points -- not a boilerplate contract signed as-is.

The county's tax deal behind the project -- and why it matters even if you're not leasing

Separate from individual landowner payments, Marshall County negotiated a specific tax-treatment schedule for the Irish Creek project: NextEra agreed to contribute $4.5 million to the county during the project's first 10 years, a period during which the wind farm itself is exempt from standard property taxation (a common structure for large Kansas wind projects, typically tied to an economic-development tax exemption), followed by an estimated $2 million or more per year in ordinary property tax revenue to the county during years 11 through 30 once that exemption period ends. For a buyer who isn't leasing land directly but is evaluating Marshall County more broadly, this matters because it signals a real, multi-decade revenue stream the county is counting on for roads, schools, and other services -- and because a similar structure is a realistic template for how a future wind or solar project elsewhere in the county might be negotiated.

Before signing a wind or solar lease in Marshall County, get the specific per-turbine and per-acre payment terms in writing (the county-wide $50 million figure is not a per-landowner number), ask whether your particular parcel would fall inside the easement boundary, an access-road easement only, or outside the project altogether, and have an attorney review decommissioning and land-restoration language against NextEra's own stated post-operation land-condition commitments before you sign.

Wind & Solar Leasing in Marshall County, Kansas

What a wind lease is actually worth here, and what it ties up

The county's tax deal behind the project -- and why it matters even if you're not leasing

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