Nature Conservancy of Indiana advocates hope to use map, grant to reduce conflict over solar, wind siting

As Indiana prepares to bring thousands of megawatts of utility-scale wind and solar energy online, environmentalists and educators hope to use new tools — mapping and grant-boosted education — to manage strife over where future projects go.

“There is this (not-in-my-backyard)-ism out there. But it’s not necessarily because of wind and solar energy; it’s because of how the process was initiated,” said Sean Mobley, a senior policy associate for climate and clean energy at The Nature Conservancy of Indiana.

The conservancy is developing a geospatial mapping tool that he said combines “hundreds of layers of inputs” to locate sites involving — potentially — fewer conflicts with nature and residents, plus better connections to the electric grid.

And it’s working in collaboration with Purdue University’s Extension — which offers Hoosiers home-grown expertise — and the Indiana Office of Energy Development to vie for a federal grant meant to aid in renewable energy siting.

Lawmakers, meanwhile, say state-level mandates for siting don’t yet have the legislative support to pass.

Energy transition brings development and backlash

Indiana’s energy mix is changing, like it or not.

The state used carbon dioxide-emitting coal to produce about 80% of its energy in 2010, but that dropped to under 50% by 2022, according to the Indiana Office of Energy Development.

Indiana has about 3,500 megawatts of wind and more than 400 megawatts of utility-scale solar in operation, the office said. 

More is on the way.

More than 12,000 megawatts of wind, solar, and storage have gone through the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission’s regulatory proceedings, the office said, and almost 9,000 of those megawatts are expected to come online by 2028. 

And Hoosiers are largely open to the prospect, according to a survey conducted by Indiana-based Bellwether Research on behalf of the conservancy.

In the May 8-14 phone and text-to-web survey of 600 voters across the state, 63% of residents had favorable views of wind projects and 67% looked favorably on solar projects. About 25% and 20%, respectively, reported unfavorable views.

And the majority of Hoosiers in a 600-person oversample — of a dozen potential wind and solar counties — said they wanted Indiana to increase its use of wind (61%) and solar (71%).

But fewer respondents in both the statewide and oversample surveys held favorable views of companies who operate large wind farms (49%) and solar farms (56%) in Indiana, as well as of their county commissioners (46%).

Hoosiers may not mind renewable energy projects in the abstract, but could still stand opposed to specific projects — which were not included in the survey — that impact their communities, Mobley acknowledged.

Residents often rally against other state- and developer-led projects: land and water concerns have driven backlash to amajor industrial campus in Boone County and health and safety fears to plannedcarbon sequestration in Vigo and Vermillion counties. Reactions against change or development may win out against developers in other cases.

But Mobley and others hope to develop a “standard operating procedure” and technical expertise to navigate or even avoid conflict over nature, farmland and other flashpoints.

Layering considerations

Mobley calls the conservancy’s project a renewable energy “opportunity map.”

It uses data from Site Renewables Right and Power of Place to avoid important wildlife habitats and productive farmland, alongside demographic information and more.

The map’s modeling parameters for wind and solar also include the distance to major roads, substations and transmission lines — plus average annual wind speed, sunlight and ground slope.

“It’s a (geographic information system) application that takes in all of these hundreds of layers of inputs and tries to find where there is the lowest conflict possible for renewable energy development,” Mobley said.

It additionally contains layers for degraded lands like former mining areas, landfills and polluted industrial tracts known as brownfields that could host a project.

When the map goes live in early 2024, Mobley hopes developers and stakeholders can use it as tool — alongside better processes.

After nearly two years of negotiations, a dozen solar companies, conservationists and other groupsagreed on a set of principlesto expand upon and use to shape future developments: minimizing carbon emissions; minimizing impacts on natural or working lands and communities; and equitably distributing the benefits of those projects throughout host communities.

“I think that’s what The Nature Conservancy is striving to stress upon clean energy buyers, utilities … that it’s not just the number of acres and the megawatts of energy that this project could create,” Mobley said.

“(We’re) striving to … get that community engagement early and often so that your projects aren’t delayed. Delays cost money,” he added. “It’s essentially establishing a standard operating procedure for how these projects could be done to get community and stakeholder buy-in and identify or avoid negative conservation impacts that can sometimes come with clean energy projects.”

More technical and engagement help

Purdue Extension is also leading an effort to secure a federal Renewable Energy Siting through Technical Engagement and Planning (R-STEP) grant to further assist local units of government handling potential developments.

Extension R-STEP application leaders Kara Salazar and Tamara Ogle said the small and rural communities they typically serve often don’t have the resources or experience to engage in zoning — it’s optional in Indiana — or apply for grants or hire consultants for help.

The Community Development team also may help locals understand data, create visualizations and reach residents — particularly under-served Hoosiers — with engagement opportunities. Salazar and Ogle also want to update an ordinance inventory and increase collaboration among application entities to provide more communities more assistance.

“When you can have that trusted third party that can help provide some good processes so that we can have good conversations and communities, that really helps not only with the decision making, but to preserve that social fabric of the community too,” Ogle said. “Because some sometimes these land use conflicts can really damage that social fabric for years on.”

‘Piecemeal’ approach here to stay

Those efforts will be all the more impactful in a state without standard siting requirements for wind and solar energy development. Indiana leaves decisions up to local units of government.

Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, said that’s led counties like Madison to implement siting ordinances that “nobody’s going to build under.” Soliday chairs the Senate’s utilities committee and serves as his caucus’ point person on energy matters.

He led an effort to implement siting requirements in2021, but it failed in the Senate.

Lawmakers instead advanced a voluntary concept in 2022for local units that wish to be designated “wind energy ready” and “solar energy ready,” and added to the approach this year.

“It’s better than nothing, I guess, but we still don’t have the statewide standards that the developers would really like to see,” said Kerwin Olson, leader of utility watchdog Citizens Action Coalition.

“It’s a very, very piecemeal approach,” he added, but acknowledged that decisions on local versus state control are “tough.”

Soliday said an attempt at a mandate was unlikely in the coming legislative session. But he said the issue remains crucial because businesses want to use renewable energy and factor it into operational decisions.

“We have two choices in my mind: we build it, or we buy it from somebody else,” he said at a December legislative conference. “If we want to compete in this market, … we’ve got to figure out a way around it. But right now, I would not bet on our ability to get it even out of a committee.”