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Updated: August 16, 2026 @ 2:44 pm
Platteview Solar, owned by AES Corp., operates a solar panel farm in Saunders County. The county received about $266,000 in nameplate capacity tax revenue in 2025.
Platteview Solar, owned by AES Corp., operates a solar panel farm in Saunders County. The county received about $266,000 in nameplate capacity tax revenue in 2025.
This story is made possible through a partnership between Flatwater Free Press and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
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After about 10 years of discussions and a failed bond issue, then-Superintendent Amy Shane finally got to see a much-needed expansion at the O’Neill Public School District’s aging junior-senior high school. Expanded classrooms, state-of-the-art science labs, a new gym.
The difference-maker that helped push the $13.2 million project from proposal to reality: taxes on renewable energy developments.
“We could get something good for our students without putting a huge burden on our taxpayers,” Shane said.
Holt County, home to O’Neill, is one of 44 counties in Nebraska that received tax revenue in 2025 from wind and solar developments. The excise tax, known as the nameplate capacity tax, requires qualifying renewable energy developments to annually pay $3,518 per megawatt of power that the facility can generate.
The money flows to counties whose treasurers divide it among local jurisdictions, including the county governments, community colleges, school districts and natural resource districts. In nine years, O’Neill Public Schools raked in about $7.6 million, which Shane said helped offset the cost of the school’s expansion.
The project is an example of what economic development and renewable energy proponents have argued: Renewable energy projects can help Nebraska communities diversify their revenue streams and offset property tax burdens plaguing residents across the state. But in recent years, a number of Nebraska counties have enacted strict regulations on renewable developments, with opponents citing property values, noise, health and safety, fire risks and other concerns.
In fact, over 88% of the renewables nameplate tax revenue flowed back to 10 of Nebraska’s 93 counties in 2025.
But with rising power demand, advocates and experts see renewables like wind and solar as a contributor to future economic development in Nebraska.
“This renewable development, to me, fits squarely with an ethos I’ve learned from my father and grandfather on the farm: If it’s useful, use it, don’t waste anything,” said Josh Moenning, former Norfolk mayor and now owner of a renewable energy consulting firm. “That’s the opportunity we have in spades with both wind and solar in Nebraska, and to me they’re compatible with agriculture.”
WHAT ARE THE NUMBERS
While proponents of wind and solar energy have long touted the benefits of these developments, the nameplate tax revenue figures offer a quantifiable look at the actual monetary benefits.
In 2025, Nebraska communities received over $13.6 million in nameplate capacity tax revenue, including penalties and interest, according to data from the Department of Revenue. Wayne County in northeast Nebraska received the largest amount, more than $2.7 million before distribution to the local community college and political subdivisions. At the low end, Valley County, at the edge of the Nebraska Sandhills, received just $528.
Lawmakers created the nameplate capacity tax in 2010 to replace personal property tax for renewable developments. This allows local taxing authorities to continue to receive a steady amount of tax revenue, said Jon Cannon, executive director of the Nebraska Association of County Officials. The landowner still pays property taxes.
“It (nameplate capacity tax revenue) helps offset the amount that would otherwise need to come from property taxes, allowing counties to keep up with state-mandated essential services and inflationary costs,” said Candace Meredith, deputy director of the Nebraska Association of County Officials, in a statement.
Revenue distributed from the nameplate tax and the number of counties receiving it has risen over the years. In 2015, just nine counties received nameplate capacity tax revenue, which totaled $2.03 million.
Lawmakers have discussed changing the tax. A 2025 proposal would have raised it from $3,518 per megawatt to $6,560. But the bill, part of a larger tax package, ultimately died. Earlier this year, lawmakers passed a bill that expands the tax to include qualifying battery energy storage developments.
Beyond taxes, wind and solar developers can make lease payments to the landowner — and sometimes neighboring landowners — where they’re operating. It’s unknown exactly how much Nebraska landowners earn from lease payments. An estimate from the Nebraska Farmers Union puts the amount for wind developments between $4,000 and $7,000 per megawatt.
Generally speaking, landowners can get a higher rate for leasing their land for renewables than for agriculture, said Eric Thompson, director of the Bureau of Business Research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Nebraskans have raised concerns that renewables, specifically solar, could reduce acres of farmland. However, there are areas of the state where the land isn’t productive and landowners could benefit from the added revenue. John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, said urban sprawl and acreage housing continue to be the leading threats to farmland in Nebraska.
“The one thing that we know in the ag sector is that we continue to be extremely dependent on off-farm jobs to subsidize our farming operations that are not working. And so every wind turbine is like an off-farm, part-time job, except that the farmer or rancher doesn’t have to leave their farm or ranch to get paid for it,” said Hansen, who chairs the Nebraska Wind and Solar Conference.
THE NEED FOR ENERGY
Carolyn Semin moved to the Sandhills in 1968 with her husband to live on the land he was born on. The couple has about 2,500 acres that they lease out for cattle ranching. It’s a quiet and scenic life, Semin said. And she wants to preserve it.
Semin and fellow Cherry County residents have been locked in a yearslong battle to stop wind energy development. There have been multiple lawsuits involving the county, landowners and the developer. Years ago, the county approved a special permit for a development west of Valentine but has since said the permit expired.
Cherry County was home to a single wind turbine capable of generating $6,508 in annual nameplate revenue, according to Department of Revenue figures for 2024, the most recent year available.
“I’m fighting for this beautiful piece of pristine land that is going to be destroyed if we continue doing this kind of stuff. We’re not made for it,” Semin said.
Semin has pages of concerns when it comes to wind energy in the Sandhills: soil erosion, heightened fire risk, lower property values, land contamination and impacts to cattle — to name a few.
She isn’t alone. Across the state, residents have pushed back against renewable energy developments. Some Nebraska counties have adopted moratoriums or strict zoning regulations that have effectively banned these developments or made them more difficult to site.
Back in March, Butler County, which has no zoning, put a nine-month moratorium on renewable energy developments, data centers and landfills. The temporary ban is meant to give the county time to develop a comprehensive plan and zoning regulations, according to the county clerk.
After the threat of a lawsuit, the county later exempted an ongoing solar project by Sandhills Energy, an Omaha-based renewables developer. During the discussions in March, a few residents spoke in favor of the moratorium to give the planning commission time, while others expressed concerns about the planning process. A couple also voiced support for the Sandhills Energy project.
One resident said he has land that will be used for the project. With the development, he hopes to get some use out of it now since the land is hard to farm.
Pushback to wind and solar comes as utilities in Nebraska and across the country wrestle with an energy crunch caused by skyrocketing demand from electrification, manufacturing and data centers.
Omaha Public Power District, which serves a large swath of eastern Nebraska, is taking an all-of-the-above approach, where coal remains on the grid, natural gas assets are expanding and the utility could have more power purchase agreements with renewable energy developments.
Renewables can help the utility manage energy costs and address peak demand when the grid is stretched thin, said Dustin Marvel, manager of government and community relations at OPPD.
Right now, wind and solar are affordable compared to other energy sources and can be built quickly, said Kenneth Gillingham, a professor of environmental and energy economics at Yale University. This is especially important for utilities since new nuclear plants can take time to build and the natural gas generator supply chain remains tight.
For Nebraska, adding more power to the grid now isn’t just about serving existing customers — it could also spur more economic growth from other industries like the bioeconomy, said Hunter Traynor, an executive vice president at Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry. A recent report commissioned by the Nebraska Chamber Foundation recommended the state take a more active role in promoting energy development.
“We have a lot of stated economic goals in Nebraska, and energy and public support for energy infrastructure, in particular, is a bedrock necessity right now to keep our economies all across the state flourishing and growing,” Traynor said.
Nevertheless, these projects face a few challenges. Currently, the infrastructure that transmits energy across the state is limited, which restricts where new energy generation locates. It also takes time for new projects to connect to the grid. And then there’s community pushback.
“We do see oftentimes where a developer has an opportunity, maybe the project is advantageously located. However, due to community opposition or feedback, maybe that project loses steam or loses the ability to actually come to market, and then we lose that,” Marvel said.
Cannon with the Nebraska Association of County Officials said that in order for renewable developers to actually make headway with communities that are skeptical, they need to be transparent about their intentions and address concerns early on.
Traynor said that these projects involve layers of regulatory approvals that can allow communities to assess if they are suitable. However, some projects get stopped by local resistance before they go through the process. He is concerned these experiences could cause a chilling effect on companies considering Nebraska.
“They take layers of contracts, they take negotiations with local governments, with local economic development organizations, with community college partners that have to be responsive to the types of workforce needs,” Traynor said. “This is complicated stuff, and it’s not black or white.”
Anila Yoganathan is a Climate and Environment Reporter for the Flatwater Free Press in partnership with Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization. Originally from Georgia, she has experience covering energy and environment issues in Tennessee and Georgia. She previously worked for the Knoxville News Sentinel covering federal utility, the Tennessee Valley Authority and environmental issues in East Tennessee. Most Recently, Anila worked at the Atlanta Business Chronicle covering everything from economic development to manufacturing and local business spotlights. Her work has also appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Associated Press and the Tennessee Lookout. In her free time, Anila loves to work on art projects and watch football.
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