Wind and Solar Energy Leasing in Lyon County, Minnesota

Coneflower Solar: state-approved, built on leased and eased land, north of Garvin

Coneflower Energy, LLC, a subsidiary of Apex Clean Energy, received a Minnesota Public Utilities Commission site permit on August 7, 2025 for an up-to-245-megawatt solar facility in Custer Township, Lyon County, immediately north of the city of Garvin. The project sits on roughly 2,299 acres of privately-owned land held under lease or easement agreement with the developer -- not land Coneflower owns outright -- with about 20 individual landowners already signed on as of the permitting process, and an actual project footprint of approximately 1,723 acres within that larger leased area. Coneflower is targeting operation by late 2027, and reporting on the project estimates it will generate roughly $500,000 in annual property tax revenue for the county once built. For a landowner near Custer Township, or a buyer evaluating land there, this project is no longer speculative -- it has a state-issued permit and a real construction timeline, distinct from the still-pending Cotton River Wind project described on the county hub.

Coneflower has also proposed a separate 345-kilovolt transmission line to connect the project to a future Xcel Energy substation (or, alternatively, a new switching station tied to an existing 115-kilovolt line), which is moving through its own PUC Energy Infrastructure Permitting docket. A landowner whose property sits along a potential transmission corridor, rather than within the solar array's own footprint, should treat that as a related but functionally separate leasing and easement question -- transmission-line easements typically carry different compensation structures, width requirements, and land-use restrictions than a panel-array lease.

The county board pushed back, and the PUC's approval carries landowner-facing conditions

Coneflower Solar's path to approval wasn't uncontested locally. Lyon County commissioners publicly criticized the project during its 2024 public presentation process, with concerns centered on more than 1,600 acres of cropland leaving agricultural production and the potential visual impact on neighboring properties; cost concerns specific to the county's own permit review process also surfaced in board discussion. Despite that local pushback, the state's Administrative Law Judge recommended approval, and the Public Utilities Commission ultimately issued the site permit in August 2025 -- a reminder that Minnesota's state-level energy siting process (governed by the PUC rather than county zoning alone) can approve a large solar project even where county commissioners have expressed real reservations.

That approval, though, was not unconditional: based on community input and agency review, the PUC directed Coneflower to work directly with landowners to develop and implement visual screening intended to reduce the project's aesthetic impact, to create vegetation management plans favoring pollinator-friendly plantings, and to prioritize hiring local Minnesota workers during construction. For a landowner under lease, or a neighbor whose property borders the project, this means the state permit itself creates a basis to ask Coneflower specifically what screening and vegetation commitments apply to your parcel or its boundary -- these aren't optional developer goodwill gestures but conditions attached to the underlying state approval that allowed the project to proceed over local objection.

What this means for your purchase

1. If land in or near Custer Township is under an existing Coneflower Solar lease or easement, pull the recorded document from the Lyon County Recorder to confirm its actual boundary, payment terms, and whether it transfers automatically to a new owner.
2. Ask Coneflower or Lyon County directly what visual-screening and pollinator vegetation-management commitments apply to a specific parcel under the PUC's permit conditions -- don't assume a blanket standard applies uniformly across the roughly 2,299-acre project area.
3. If a parcel sits along a possible transmission corridor rather than within the solar footprint itself, check the separate Coneflower 345 kV Transmission Line Project docket, since that easement is a distinct legal and compensation matter from a panel-array lease.
4. Confirm current construction status and timeline against the PUC's project docket rather than the 2024 news coverage of local board opposition, since the project has since received a permit and moved into a build-toward-2027 phase.