Tippecanoe Co. proposes solar moratorium, as first utility-scale project looms near Montmorenci

Moratorium proposal will be up for county commissioners vote Monday. Whether it can stall a plan for 1,000-plus acres of solar panels still isn’t clear

(Photo: Unsplash)

With the first utility-scale solar project in Tippecanoe County up for a round of local approvals in less than a month, county commissioners next week will consider a proposed one-year moratorium on similar plans.

That vote, expected Monday morning, comes after residents in western Tippecanoe County have called for tighter controls on massive solar installations before one dubbed the Rainbow Trout Solar Project – one that will include more than 1,000 acres of panels near Montmorenci, roughly five miles from West Lafayette – gets the go-ahead for up to 40 years near their homes.

Whether a moratorium voted on after Geenex, a North Carolina-based company that initiated the project in 2021, and RWE Clean Energy, an Austin, Texas-based firm that bought the Rainbow Trout project in early 2025, filed for a special zoning exception was enough to stall the 120-megawatt plan wasn’t clear Friday.

“We’re still figuring that out,” David Byers, one of three Tippecanoe County commissioners, said Friday.

Byers said that even if the Area Board of Zoning Appeals approves the Geenex and RWE Clean Energy request at its next meeting on June 25, the project would require a series of other regulatory steps on drainage and assorted permitting that could be covered by a moratorium.

ABOVE: Here’s the map of of the proposed Rainbow Trout Solar Project, with two sections of western Tippecanoe County marked in blue. BELOW: The northern section, near Montmorenci, and the southern section, north of Division Road.

Byers sthe moratorium would buy the county a year to take another look at local zoning regulations finalized in 2021 that deal with large-scale solar projects.