Schuyler County, MO
Wind and Solar Leasing in Schuyler County, Missouri
Schuyler County is home to most of Ameren's High Prairie Renewable Energy Center, a 400 MW, 175-turbine wind farm that's Missouri's largest -- and one that has spent the past two-plus years working through a string of turbine collapses. Here's what's actually happening, and what it means whether you're already leased in, considering an offer, or just live nearby.
This page covers what's specific to Schuyler County. For the general explanation, see the national guide.
The project: Missouri's largest wind farm, split across two counties
The High Prairie Renewable Energy Center is a 400 MW wind facility with 175 turbines spanning Adair and Schuyler counties in far northeast Missouri, first approved around 2018, built by an affiliate of Terra-Gen, and acquired by Ameren Missouri in December 2020. It is described consistently across multiple sources as Missouri's largest wind farm. The project sits on land under lease from an estimated 180 private landowners across roughly 53,800 leased acres (about 21,775 hectares), which means a substantial share of rural land ownership in the two-county area is directly tied to this single project's lease payments.
One long-standing operational detail worth knowing regardless of the current turbine-collapse situation: the facility has, since around 2021, curtailed nighttime operation specifically to reduce mortality risk to the federally endangered Indiana bat and the threatened northern long-eared bat, under a federal Habitat Conservation Plan and incidental-take permit covering the project area. That curtailment is a permanent feature of how this wind farm operates, not a temporary response to the collapses -- it affects the facility's output (and, by extension, may affect royalty-based lease payments) independent of the mechanical issues discussed below.
The turbine collapses: what happened, and what's still unresolved
Starting in 2024, the High Prairie facility experienced a series of turbine collapses -- reported in April, August, and November of that year -- attributed to blade-detachment failures that create a catastrophic imbalance in the turbine. A further turbine collapse was reported in Schuyler County in September 2026, prompting Ameren to conduct another round of assessment. Reporting through early-to-mid 2026 described most of the facility's 175 turbines as still shut down months after the initial collapses, with only a small number (roughly a dozen or so as of spring 2026) reactivated after inspection, and Ameren pursuing blade replacement based on inspection data rather than a blanket fix.
As of this review, there is no publicly confirmed date for full facility restart. For a landowner with an existing lease, the practical questions worth asking your own contract (or a local attorney who has reviewed it) are: does your lease pay a fixed rent regardless of turbine operation, or does it include a production-based or royalty component that could be affected by an extended shutdown of turbines specifically on or near your parcel; does the lease specify who bears liability or cleanup responsibility if a turbine near your property collapses; and does the lease's decommissioning-bond language address a scenario where turbines are removed rather than repaired following a failure like this.
If you're evaluating land near, but not part of, the project
Because Schuyler County has no zoning, there is no public hearing record or notice process to check for information about turbine locations, setbacks from property lines, or safety buffers -- that information would need to come from Ameren directly, from the recorded easements at the Recorder of Deeds' office (which will show turbine and access-road easement locations for parcels under lease), or from the landowner leasing to the project. If you're buying land near an existing or former turbine site, ask specifically whether the nearby turbine has been part of the collapse pattern and whether it has been reactivated, decommissioned, or left in an indeterminate status -- the answer materially affects both nuisance risk and, potentially, your own property's resale story.
MU Extension's general Missouri wind-lease guidance (covering lease structure, decommissioning security, and tax implications of a wind easement) is useful background whether or not your specific parcel is affected by the current turbine issues, since it applies to any wind lease in the state, not just this project.
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- Missouri's largest wind farm still largely inactive months after turbines collapse — Sinclair Advance News (SAN) (accessed 2026-09)
- Ameren's High Prairie wind farm turbines idle after collapses — KTVO (accessed 2026-09)
- Devastating Vestas Turbine Failures Paralyze 400MW Missouri Wind Farm — SustainablePowerNews (accessed 2026-09)
- Wind turbine collapses in Schuyler County — National Wind Watch (aggregating Schuyler County Times / NEMOnews) (accessed 2026-09)
- Ameren's High Prairie wind farm turbines idle after collapses — National Wind Watch (accessed 2026-09)
- Another turbine collapses in Schuyler County — National Wind Watch (accessed 2026-09)
- UPDATED: Wind turbine collapses in Schuyler County — KRCG (accessed 2026-09)
- Missouri's largest wind farm isn't running at night for fear of killing endangered animals — Missouri Independent (accessed 2026-09)
- Ameren to establish state's largest wind farm in northeast Missouri — St. Louis Post-Dispatch (accessed 2026-09)
- Indiana Bat and Northern Long-Eared Bat Final Habitat Conservation Plan — U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (accessed 2026-09)
- Introduction to Wind Energy Leases (G432) — University of Missouri Extension (accessed 2026-09)
Last reviewed 2026-09