Wind Energy Leasing in Logan County, North Dakota

The county-level permitting layer: a Wind Energy Facility Siting Permit

Logan County's zoning ordinance, most recently amended April 9, 2025 after a nearly two-year public process, defines any wind energy conversion system with a nameplate capacity of 100 kilowatts or greater as a regulated 'Wind Turbine' requiring a Wind Energy Facility Siting Permit before construction. That threshold is low enough to capture essentially any utility-scale turbine and most community-scale projects, meaning a landowner can't simply sign a lease and let a developer build -- the project has to clear Logan County's own siting permit process first, administered through the County Auditor's Office working with the County Zoning Commission rather than a standalone planning department.

As part of that permit, the county's ordinance requires the applicant to submit a decommissioning and reclamation plan addressing how the project will be terminated at the end of its useful life, how equipment and infrastructure will be removed, and how the site will be restored -- including how soil contamination will be minimized during operation and remediated at decommissioning so the land meets applicable state and federal environmental standards. A landowner signing a lease should confirm that this county-required decommissioning plan is actually on file and specifically ask who bears the removal cost if the developer or its parent company is no longer in business by the time the project is retired, since a county-approved decommissioning plan describes what must happen, not necessarily who pays if the responsible party has since dissolved.

For a utility-scale project, a second layer at the state Public Service Commission

Beyond county approval, a large wind project also needs a Certificate of Site Compatibility from the North Dakota Public Service Commission. Badger Wind, the Ørsted-developed project spanning western Logan and neighboring McIntosh counties, illustrates both layers in sequence: Logan County issued it a Conditional Use Permit in May 2022, and the PSC granted an original site compatibility certificate later that year (Case PU-22-086), with an amended application still moving through PSC review as of 2024-2025 (Case 24-0087) to revise the project's boundary and turbine layout -- described in filings as up to roughly 262 megawatts nameplate capacity across as many as 103 potential turbine positions, with fewer than that actually expected to be built. Sound-level compliance is also a live issue in that PSC review, with the developer seeking waivers where modeled turbine noise exceeds the PSC's standard sound-level requirement in some locations -- a landowner near a proposed turbine site should ask specifically whether their parcel is inside or adjacent to any such waiver area.

The practical upshot for a landowner: a signed lease with a developer is not the same as an approved project, and the gap between the two can run for years while county and PSC review plays out (Badger Wind's amended siting case was still open as of this writing, more than two years after the original CUP). Ask a developer directly what stage a specific proposed project is at -- lease-only, county-permitted, PSC-certified, or under construction -- rather than assuming a signed lease means turbines are coming soon.

What to check before treating a wind lease as bankable income

• Whether payments begin at lease signing, at county/PSC approval, or only once the turbine is actually operating and generating -- these are very different income timelines, and industry reporting on Badger Wind's aggregate landowner payments describes project-wide totals, not a guaranteed per-parcel figure.
• Whether the lease is tied to a specific turbine count or footprint on your land, and what happens to payments if the final approved layout (which was still being revised for Badger Wind as of the 2024-2025 PSC case) ends up placing fewer turbines on your parcel than originally proposed.
• Who is contractually responsible for decommissioning costs if the operating company is sold, restructured, or dissolved before the end of the lease term -- and whether that obligation is backed by a bond or letter of credit rather than just a plan on file with the county.
• Existing wind-related agreements already recorded against a parcel you're buying (rather than leasing yourself) -- Logan County's Recorder can confirm whether a prior owner already signed a lease, easement, or access agreement tied to Emmons-Logan Wind or Badger Wind that would transfer with the land.