What the law does
Ohio Senate Bill 52 lets counties block wind and solar projects. It took effect in October 2021. It applies to wind projects of 5 megawatts and up, and solar projects of 50 megawatts and up. A single large turbine can clear 5 megawatts, so in practice the law covers almost every commercial wind project in the state.
County commissioners can draw a restricted area on the map, inside which no such project may be built. They can also block or shrink one specific proposed project. Township and county representatives get seats on the state board that reviews applications. Developers have to file a plan and a bond for taking the equipment down at the end of its life. Three elected commissioners can now end a wind project that a developer has spent years and millions preparing.
The same law gives residents a way to fight back. Citizens can petition for a referendum, and the ban does not take effect until the county has voted on it.
What Richland County did
Commissioners asked all 18 townships whether they wanted large wind and solar banned in their unincorporated areas.
Show the numbers
| Asked for a ban | 11 |
| Did not | 7 |
Richland County commissioners asked all 18 of their townships what they wanted. 11 asked for a ban on large wind and solar, 7 did not. The commissioners approved the ban in 2025, residents forced a referendum, and on May 5, 2026 the county voted to keep it with less than 53% in favour. The ban now covers 11 townships, including Bloominggrove, Mifflin, Perry and Plymouth. Richland became the 28th Ohio county with a restriction like this.
[Eleven townships] sent us back the resolution asking us to ban large wind and solar in the unincorporated areas of their townships, and seven did not. So, we did that.
Darrell Banks, Richland County commissioner. The square brackets are the outlet substituting words into the original. Source 4.
The people who voted against the ban argued it was government overreach and would cost the county investment. The people who voted for it were mostly arguing about farmland, and what happens to it when a project reaches the end of its life.
How many places restrict wind and solar
By the end of 2024, 459 counties and towns across 44 states had adopted severe restrictions on building wind or solar, according to the annual count kept by Columbia Law School. That was 16% more places than a year earlier. The same report counted 498 projects being actively contested across 49 states, up 32%. Arkansas and Montana appeared on the list for the first time. In Ohio, 26 of 88 counties already had a prohibited zone by the end of 2024.
How often wind and solar projects are cancelled
From a survey of developers, not a census of projects. The bars are not exclusive of each other, a delayed project can be cancelled later.
Show the numbers
| Cancelled | 30 |
| Delayed | 50 |
| Took over 6 years | 20 |
At least 30% of the applications wind and solar developers filed were cancelled. That figure comes from a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory survey of 123 people at 62 companies that between them built about half of all the wind and solar added in the United States from 2016 to 2023. About half of projects hit a serious delay, and 20% took more than 6 years. Solar gets stopped more often than wind. In 22% of the most recent cancelled projects, the public did not know the project had even been proposed.