Wind Energy Leasing in Boone County, NE

Boone County has its own zoning-based approach to wind energy, and it's a genuinely different mechanism than the conditional-use-permit-by-project route many neighboring counties use: commercial turbines are restricted to Industrial-zoned land, and setbacks scale with turbine height rather than sitting at one fixed figure. Layered underneath is the same statewide wind-agreement law that governs a lease anywhere in Nebraska. Here's how the two fit together for a specific Boone County parcel.

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

Boone County's zoning mechanism: Industrial districts, height-scaled setbacks, and a 100-foot CUP trigger

Boone County's zoning regulations use a specific technical category -- WECS-C, for a commercial-scale wind energy conversion system -- and, as reviewed for this page, commercial turbines are currently only allowed within Industrial zoning districts, not permitted as a matter of course across agricultural land countywide. That's a materially different structure than a county that reviews each wind project through its own individual conditional-use-permit conditions: in Boone County, the underlying zoning district a specific parcel carries is the first-order question, and a parcel that isn't already zoned Industrial would need to go through rezoning before it could host a WECS-C turbine under the ordinance as described in the sources reviewed.

Setbacks in Boone County's ordinance scale with turbine height rather than using one flat number: for every foot a structure exceeds 45 feet in height, an additional foot of setback is added in all directions on top of the base setback requirement -- meaning a 245-foot turbine, for example, would carry roughly 200 additional feet of setback beyond the standard distance. Any structure taller than 100 feet also triggers a Conditional Use Permit requirement subject to County Commission approval, and the ordinance requires the turbine's owner to provide financial security, in a form the County Commission approves, specifically to fund the project's Decommissioning and Land Reclamation Plan. Confirm the exact base setback figure and current ordinance language directly with the Zoning Administrator, since this page draws on secondary summaries of the ordinance rather than the full current text.

The statewide layer underneath: term limits, recording, and 2024's Power Review Board changes

Whatever the county's zoning mechanism, any actual wind lease or easement in Boone County is also governed by Nebraska's wind-agreement statute: a 40-year cap on the initial term (extendable only by mutual written agreement), automatic termination if development hasn't commenced within 10 years of the agreement's effective date, and a requirement that the agreement run with the land -- binding future owners of a parcel, which matters if you're buying land that already carries a recorded agreement from Petersburg Wind Farm or the Prairie Breeze build-out. Nebraska Revised Statute 66-911.01 also requires the instrument creating the wind right to be recorded with the county register of deeds, with the parties' names, a legal description, and the nature of the interest -- pull that recorded document directly rather than relying on a summary.

Since Legislative Bill 399 was approved in April 2024, privately developed wind projects in Nebraska also go through a Nebraska Power Review Board application and public-hearing process similar to what public power projects already faced, and developers now have up to six years (up from an initial three under an earlier floor amendment) to post the decommissioning security bond required as part of their decommissioning plan. For a Boone County parcel, that Power Review Board filing -- separate from the county's own zoning approval and financial-security requirement -- is worth requesting directly if a new project is proposed near your land.

Petersburg and Prairie Breeze: two different projects, two different due-diligence questions

Boone County's wind history splits into two distinct projects worth treating separately in due diligence. The Petersburg Wind Farm -- 27 turbines, 40.5 megawatts, operating since October 2011 -- is Boone County's own standalone project, sited and permitted specifically within the county rather than shared across a county line. The Prairie Breeze Wind Energy Center, by contrast, is a multi-phase, multi-county project (spanning Antelope, Boone, and Madison Counties) developed by Invenergy, and Boone County hosts a specific share of it: 19 of Prairie Breeze I's 118 turbines and part of Prairie Breeze II's 41 turbines. Because Prairie Breeze crosses county lines, a parcel's specific lease terms, decommissioning-security filing, and zoning-approval history could reference either the Antelope County or Boone County portion of the project depending on exactly where the parcel sits -- don't assume the same terms apply on both sides of the county line.

For a parcel near either project, ask specifically which zoning district the parcel currently carries (Industrial-zoned land is where a new WECS-C turbine could actually be sited under the ordinance as described here), whether any existing turbine or easement on or near the parcel is tied to Petersburg or to a specific Prairie Breeze phase, and whether the applicable decommissioning-security filing is on record with the county or with the Power Review Board.

Wind Energy Leasing in Boone County, Nebraska

Boone County's zoning mechanism: Industrial districts, height-scaled setbacks, and a 100-foot CUP trigger

The statewide layer underneath: term limits, recording, and 2024's Power Review Board changes

Petersburg and Prairie Breeze: two different projects, two different due-diligence questions

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