© 2025. The Trustees of Indiana University
Copyright Complaints
1229 East Seventh Street, Bloomington, Indiana 47405
News, Arts and Culture from WFIU Public Radio and WTIU Public Television
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Federal funding for public media has been eliminated — we need your help to continue serving south central Indiana
Some web content from Indiana Public Media is unavailable during our transition to a new web publishing platform. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Indiana House passes bill on wind, solar siting guidelines

The report looks into areas that are suitable for solar projects, but also wouldn’t conflict with other natural elements.
The report looks into areas that are suitable for solar projects, but also wouldn’t conflict with other natural elements.

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

Join the conversation and sign up for the Indiana Two-Way. Text "Indiana" to 73224. Your comments and questions in response to our weekly text help us find the answers you need on statewide issues. Trying to follow along with our coverage of the legislative session? We've compiled all the stories our reporters have published  by bill number and topic here.

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.

Katherine Patterson is a reporter for WFIU and WTIU news. She studies journalism at Indiana University Bloomington with a concentration in Broadcasting. She is also a reporter for IUNewsNet.