Solar and Wind Energy Leasing in Millard County, Utah

A gigawatt-scale solar buildout is already underway near Delta

In 2026, Creekstone Energy LLC signed what has been reported as the largest solar lease in Utah's history: a long-term lease with the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) covering roughly 13,000 acres of state trust land in Millard County. Creekstone's plan is to develop more than 1 gigawatt of solar generating capacity within about 18 months of the lease closing, feeding power to its adjacent "Delta Gigasite" -- a data-center campus of more than 1,100 acres that the company has master-planned for over 10 gigawatts of eventual total capacity. Millard County has already granted zoning approval for utility-scale solar development on the first phase of the leased acreage, meaning this is a permitted, moving project, not a speculative announcement.

The practical point for anyone evaluating land near this corridor: SITLA (not a private seller) controls the leased acreage itself, so an individual buyer won't be purchasing inside that specific 13,000-acre lease area. What it does mean is that Millard County now has direct, recent experience approving gigawatt-scale solar zoning and is actively managing the infrastructure, traffic, and construction impact of a major energy build -- ask the county Planning and Zoning Department directly whether a specific nearby parcel sits within any transmission, substation, or access-road corridor tied to the Creekstone project or the Delta Gigasite campus.

The county's own conditional-use permit process for utility-scale solar

Millard County has permitted utility-scale solar before, and the record is public: Energy Capital Group's 300-megawatt "ECG Utah Solar 1" project was approved under Conditional Use Permits Z-2013-036, Z-2015-020, and Z-2015-021, which the county lists as remaining in full force and effect. Those permits illustrate the kind of conditions Millard County actually attaches to a utility-scale solar approval: site vegetation protection, stormwater control measures, and dust-control requirements during construction -- not just a rezoning, but a conditional-use approval with ongoing operating conditions tied to the site.

For a landowner or buyer, this means utility-scale solar in Millard County runs through a conditional-use permit application to the Planning and Zoning Department (the same office that handles the county's Title 10 zoning and Title 11 subdivision matters), not an as-of-right use in most districts. If you're weighing whether solar development is realistic on or near a specific parcel, ask the department directly what zoning district applies, whether solar is a conditional use there, and what site conditions (comparable to ECG Utah Solar 1's vegetation, stormwater, and dust requirements) would likely attach to an approval.

Wind power already has an established footprint in the county

Solar isn't the county's only renewable-energy history. The Milford Wind Corridor project's second phase, completed in May 2011, sits mostly within Millard County and consists of 68 turbines generating roughly 102 megawatts (Phase 1, a separate 204-megawatt, 97-turbine installation, is in neighboring Beaver County). That means wind-turbine infrastructure, associated access roads, and interconnection facilities have been an operating part of the Millard County landscape for well over a decade -- a buyer evaluating land in the county's wind corridor should expect an established, not speculative, industry presence, and should ask the county and the project operator directly about any turbine setback, noise, or shadow-flicker standard that could apply to a nearby parcel.

If you're considering leasing your own land for solar or wind

Millard County's active solar and wind development means private landowners here may be approached directly by developers about leasing land for a project. As general context (not a Millard County-specific figure), utility-scale solar leases nationally have run in a roughly $250 to $1,000-per-acre-per-year range with terms of 20 to 40 years including an initial option period, and most leases require the developer to post a decommissioning bond or letter of credit obligating them to remove equipment and restore the land at lease end -- the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's own standard bond figure for BLM-permitted solar in this region has been set at roughly $10,000 per acre with periodic inflation adjustment, which is a useful reference point even for a private lease, not a number that automatically applies to one.

Before signing anything, confirm with Millard County Planning and Zoning what conditional-use approval your specific parcel's zoning district would require (using the ECG Utah Solar 1 permit conditions as a real example of what the county has asked for before), and have a real estate or energy attorney review the lease's decommissioning, term-renewal, and easement/access provisions -- generic online lease-rate figures are a starting point for a negotiation, not a substitute for county-specific verification and legal review.