A circuit court ruled that Duke violated its contract with Benton County Wind Farm and has to pay $29 million in damages.

If approved, the solar farm and battery storage equipment would become the first so-called "microgrid" at any National Guard facility in the state.

Duke Energy says the move is an attempt to use "fear and the courts to upend public policy."

The hardest-hit area was Boone County, just northwest of Indianapolis, where more than 4,500 outages were reported.

State environmental officials must approve Duke's disposal plans, which include testing the site's groundwater monitoring wells at least twice a year.

The company wants to modernize the nearly 50-year-old Markland Hydro Station on an Ohio River dam, about 25 miles southwest of Cincinnati.

The company plans to cap storage basins in Cayuga, New Albany, Owensville and Terre Haute, Indiana.

Some, like Indianapolis Power and Light's plant in Indianapolis, are converting to run on natural gas.

The Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor is seeking public comment on a Duke Energy coal-gasification plant in southwestern Indiana.

Duke Energy's annual "Eagle Viewing Day" will be held Jan. 30 at its Cayuga Generating Station in Vermillion County.