Indiana House passes bill on wind, solar siting guidelines

A bill, SB 411, that sets state guidelines for where wind and solar farms can be located passed the House on Monday.

Any county or township that adopts the standards — or less stringent ones — for things like how far a wind turbine or solar farm can be from a home would be deemed a wind or solar ready community.

But the incentives to get that title were stripped from the bill. The original bill would have given counties $1 for every megawatt hour of energy generated by a renewable energy project, every year for a decade — boosting revenues for rural areas in the state.

READ MORE: House committee amends bill on wind, solar siting, stripping incentives

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One of the bill’s sponsors said the funding should be part of the state’s budget — which the legislature will vote on next year.

Contact reporter Rebecca at rthiele@iu.edu or follow her on Twitter at @beckythiele.

Indiana Environmental reporting is supported by the Environmental Resilience Institute, an Indiana University Grand Challenge project developing Indiana-specific projections and informed responses to problems of environmental change.

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