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Bureau County, Illinois: solar, wind, and storage projects and permits
Proposed projects, county offices, and the state rules for a solar, wind, or battery storage project in Bureau County, county seat Princeton.
Check land in Bureau CountyOpens the land report with the map on the county; click a spot for its flood, wetland, habitat, line-distance and parcel check.
What energy projects are proposed in Bureau County?
The MISO and PJM interconnection queues list 7 proposed projects in Bureau County (7 wind), about 820 MW in all. 1 has a signed interconnection agreement.
What stands out in Bureau County
By capacity, wind leads in Bureau County with 820 MW across 7 projects. The largest is queue number AI2-487, a 200 MW wind request in the PJM queue, in study, filed Mar 2023, with a target in-service date of Dec 2026. Of the 7, 6 are still in study and 1 has a signed agreement. 1 is in the MISO queue (Ameren territory) and 6 in PJM (ComEd territory), so Bureau County straddles both grids. ComEd is the transmission owner named most often (6 of 7). The requests were filed between Jan 2020 and Mar 2023. Target in-service dates for those not yet under construction span Oct 2021 to Dec 2026; 6 of them have already passed, which means those schedules slipped.
A listing means a developer asked the grid operator to study connecting a project; many are never built, and the status column says where each one stands.
Reading the table: the queue number is the operator's ID for the request (MISO J-numbers, PJM AE/AF/AG-numbers); operators do not publish developer names in these files. Connection is the transmission owner and, where listed, the substation or line; "Other_" is the operator's own placeholder. In study (Phase 1/2) are MISO's definitive-planning study phases; "moved to TC1" means a PJM request was carried into Transition Cycle 1; "CIR Increase" is a request to add capacity rights to an existing project; "LRTP" names a MISO long-range transmission project. For PJM rows, MW is the figure in the megawatt column of PJM's public queue export; PJM also tracks maximum facility output and capacity rights separately, so a project's study documents can show a different number. 6 target in-service dates below have already passed while the request is still open: operators keep the developer's last reported date until the developer changes it, so a past date means the schedule slipped, not that the project was built.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| Queue number and connection | Type | MW | Stage | Requested | Target in-service iThe in-service date the developer gave the grid operator. Developers set and change it, many projects slip, and some are never built. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J1755MISO · Ameren Illinois · Bureau County 138 kV | Wind | 147 | Agreement signed | Jun 2020 | Aug 2022 date passed; status per the operator |
| AI2-487PJM · ComEd · Kewanee-Hennepin Tap 138kV | Wind | 200 | In study | Mar 2023 | Dec 2026 |
| AG1-435 - moved to TC1PJM · ComEd · Kewanee-Hennepin 138 kV | Wind | 150 | In study | Sep 2020 | Dec 2023 date passed; status per the operator |
| AF2-069 - moved to TC1PJM · ComEd · Crescent Ridge 138 kV | Wind | 89 | In study | Jan 2020 | Oct 2021 date passed; status per the operator |
| AI2-428PJM · ComEd · Crescent Ridge 138kV (CIR Increase) | Wind | 89 | In study | Mar 2023 | Dec 2025 date passed; status per the operator |
| AF2-070 - moved to TC1PJM · ComEd · Crescent Ridge 138 kV | Wind | 73 | In study | Jan 2020 | Oct 2021 date passed; status per the operator |
| AI2-400PJM · ComEd · Crescent Ridge 138kV (CIR Increase) | Wind | 73 | In study | Mar 2023 | Dec 2025 date passed; status per the operator |
Sources: MISO generator interconnection queue and PJM interconnection queue, downloaded October 7, 2026; withdrawn and operating projects are left out, and the operators do not publish developer names. What the stages mean.
What can Bureau County require of a project?
Illinois law sets the ceiling: Bureau County must approve a commercial wind or solar project that meets the state standards, must finish its public hearing within 60 days, and may not ban them in agricultural or industrial zones (55 ILCS 5/5-12020); battery storage has had its own statewide standards since June 1, 2026 (55 ILCS 5/5-12024). Land inside a city or village falls under municipal zoning instead.
Recent local action: The Bureau County Zoning Board of Appeals has been holding a public hearing, recessed and reconvened repeatedly since August 20, 2025 and most recently on March 9, 2026, on 111 conditional use applications from Braided Creek Wind, LLC to build up to 58 wind turbines, a substation and two laydown yards in Indiantown and Macon Townships, with 58 requests for variations from agricultural setbacks. (Bureau County ZBA agenda)
State siting standardsFarmland agreement (AIMA)Property taxes
Who to contact in Bureau County
Assessment questions go to the supervisor of assessments, special use applications to the zoning office, and road use agreements to the county engineer; the county seat is Princeton. A drainage district, if the land is in one, must receive the developer's drainage plan.
Bureau County websiteSupervisor of assessmentsZoning and planning
Solar for homes and businesses in Bureau County
Illinois net metering, the Illinois Shines incentive, and HOA rules are the same statewide; Ameren Illinois sets the application steps here: Illinois home and business solar rules · utility application links.
State and federal reviews
Illinois EPA stormwater coverage, IDNR's EcoCAT review, historic preservation review, and federal wildlife screening can apply to a site in Bureau County: Illinois agency list.
Get the land report for a spot
Flood zone, wetlands, nearest power line, soils, and more for any point. Parcel acreage fills in automatically in Texas and 26 other states (not Illinois, which has no statewide parcel layer).