wind farms

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

Lawmakers amended a bill to remove incentives for adopting state guidelines on where wind and solar farms can be located. Money from renewable energy projects would have boosted revenues for rural counties and townships.

The northern Indiana utility NIPSCO held a ribbon cutting on Friday for its new wind farm in White County, which the company says will power some 80,000 Hoosier homes.

A controversial bill that aimed to standardize where wind and solar farms could be located in the state was withdrawn in the state Senate on Tuesday.

A new amendment in House Bill 1381 allows counties that have restrictive wind farm ordinances to keep them, but also encourages them to allow wind farms in special districts.

According to the Indiana Conservative Alliance for Energy at least 29 Indiana counties have ordinances that significantly limit large wind projects.

Since 2008, developers have installed more than 1,000 wind turbines across Indiana, primarily on 16 large wind farms.

Several groups say Indiana needs to move away from coal and toward renewable energy, but how the state should do that is up for debate.

The Merrillville-based utility announced Friday that the wind farms would be in Benton, Montgomery, Warren and White counties and have nearly 300 wind turbines.

E.ON Climate & Renewables North America wants to erect up to 81 wind turbines in Posey County in the state's far southwestern corner.