Landowners defend leasing to proposed 1,700-acre solar farm neighbors are fighting

As neighbors push back, two landowners who agreed to lease to the Rainbow Trout Solar Project say they feel they’ve made the right decision for themselves and for the community.

(Photo: Dave Bangert)

As neighbors rally to put the skids this week on the 1,700-acre Rainbow Trout Solar Project – what would be the first utility-scale solar development in Tippecanoe County – two of the six owners of property where the arrays would go say they believe they are doing what’s best for their land and for the future of renewable energy in the community.

A vote by the Board of Zoning Appeals Wednesday night could determine whether any of that happens.

KD Benson, a former Tippecanoe County commissioner, said Geenex – one of the two companies involved in the 120-megawatt project stretching for miles in western Tippecanoe County – was one of three or four companies who approached her family in recent years about several hundred acres in the Rutherford Farms name, near Montmorenci.

She said the Geenex offer to lease land between Jackson Highway and Indiana 26 West came in 2020, after others had inquired about projects, including one for a data center and another for a battery storage system. Benson said the attraction, she was told, wasn’t just about open, available ag land but about proximity to an AEP substation at County Road 350 North and Hoover Road.