Wind & Solar Leasing in Champaign County, OH: Hillclimber Fight

Champaign County, Ohio has a genuinely live, contested solar fight underway right now -- not a settled precedent. RWE's proposed Hillclimber Solar & Storage project is working through Ohio's state permitting process while the county and Urbana Township have both moved to block it. Here's the timeline and what it means if you're near the site or evaluating your own lease offer.

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

The project: 116.5 MW of solar plus 40 MW of battery storage

RWE Clean Energy filed a pre-application letter with the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) in September 2025 for the Hillclimber Solar & Storage project, proposed for Urbana Township, roughly five miles southeast of downtown Urbana. As designed, the project would pair 116.5 MW of solar generation with a 40 MW battery energy storage system, producing enough electricity to power an estimated 18,000 homes. RWE's own materials project roughly $18 million in local tax revenue over the project's lifetime, including about $14 million directed to Urbana City Schools, plus additional non-tax payments proposed to neighbors and local services.

RWE held two public community meetings about the project in October and November 2025. As of this research pass, the company projected an OPSB certificate decision around the third quarter of 2026, with construction potentially starting as early as the second quarter of 2028 and the facility entering service as early as the fourth quarter of 2029 -- a timeline that, notably, depends entirely on how the current local dispute over the project resolves.

The county and township moved fast to try to stop it

Champaign County commissioners passed a resolution in September 2025, effective in October 2025, designating restricted areas for wind and solar facilities under Ohio's 2021 Senate Bill 52 -- a state law that gives county commissioners the authority to designate parts of their county as off-limits to new utility-scale wind and solar siting. In November 2025, commissioners passed a second, more targeted resolution specifically aimed at prohibiting the Hillclimber project. Urbana Township trustees, whose township hosts the proposed site, passed their own resolution enforcing the county's restriction.

In January 2026, Champaign County Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Talebi filed formal objections with OPSB on behalf of both the Urbana Township Board of Trustees and the Champaign County Commissioners, arguing Hillclimber Solar's proposal did not comply with the restrictions the county had imposed. According to OPSB, however, the project is grandfathered under SB 52's restricted-area provisions -- meaning the county's restriction may not actually block a project that had already begun its permitting process before the restriction took effect -- except that the county retains the ability to appoint ad hoc members to the OPSB board reviewing the case. As of this research pass, this dispute's ultimate outcome was unresolved.

What this means if you own or are buying land near the proposed site

If you're evaluating land in or near Urbana Township, or anywhere in Champaign County where a future wind or solar project might be proposed, the practical lesson from Hillclimber is that Senate Bill 52's restricted-area tool doesn't automatically block an already-filed project -- grandfathering rules matter, and a county's political opposition to a project doesn't guarantee the outcome a landowner or neighbor might expect. Confirm the Hillclimber case's current status directly with OPSB (searchable by case number through opsb.ohio.gov) before assuming either that the project will or won't proceed.

If you've received your own lease inquiry from a solar or battery-storage developer in Champaign County, this dispute is a useful real-world data point: even a project offering substantial local tax revenue and community-benefit payments can face serious, organized local opposition from both the county and the host township, and that opposition can play out over many months through a formal state siting process rather than being resolved locally. Have any lease reviewed by an attorney familiar with Ohio's SB 52 framework, and ask a prospective developer directly how they're addressing local government objections before signing.

Wind and Solar Leasing in Champaign County, Ohio

The project: 116.5 MW of solar plus 40 MW of battery storage

The county and township moved fast to try to stop it

What this means if you own or are buying land near the proposed site

Ready to talk to someone who knows land?