Promised a wildlife-friendly fence, Blackford Solar built a security fence
When Blackford Solar Energy, LLC presented its plans to the Blackford County Board of Zoning Appeals on May 24, 2022, the company made a specific commitment about the fence it would build around its solar array.
"The Project will utilize a game-friendly, agricultural-based fence around the solar array perimeter that is at least 6 feet tall," the company's application states. A photograph in the application showed a low-impact, wire-strand agricultural fence — the kind designed to keep livestock contained while allowing deer and other wildlife to pass through or around it without injury.
Source: Page 5 of the May 24, 2022 Blackford Solar Energy, LLC BZA Special Exception Permit and Variances Request
The Board of Zoning Appeals approved Blackford Solar's special exception application based in part on that commitment. What Blackford Solar built does not match what it promised.
What's installed
Photographs taken June 30, 2026 along the perimeter of the Blackford Solar site show chain-link fencing topped with multiple strands of barbed wire on outward-angled extension arms. In some sections, solid privacy slatting has been woven through the chain-link, blocking visibility through the fence.
Source: Blackford County resident
The installed fence bears no resemblance to the photograph or the description Blackford Solar provided to the Board of Zoning Appeals in its 2022 application. Where the approved plan called for wildlife-permeable agricultural fencing, the company has built a security perimeter.
The distinction matters. Game-friendly fencing is specifically designed so that wildlife can pass through, over, or around the structure without injury. Barbed wire is designed for the opposite purpose — to deter and, if necessary, injure anything that attempts to cross it.
The vegetative screening that wasn't planted
The fence is not the only commitment the company appears to have not kept.
Blackford Solar's 2022 application also committed the company to plant more than 8 miles of vegetative screening around the project — a buffer of evergreen and ornamental trees including Eastern Red Cedar, Dark American Arborvitae, Eastern Redbud, Cornelian Cherry, and Bottlebrush Buckeye. The application specified that "all buffer plants" would "reach 6' height minimum within two years after install."
A recent site visit found no planted vegetative screening visible along the inspected sections of the perimeter. Construction at the site began in 2022 and is projected to enter its operational phase in late 2026, according to Blackford Solar's own published timeline. The two-year window for the committed plantings to reach 6 feet is imminent for every section of the project.
Source: https://blackfordsolar.com/#timeline
No amendment to the approved plan
The Blackford County Board of Zoning Appeals has not held any public meeting in 2026 to consider an amendment to the Blackford Solar special exception. There is no public record of the company seeking or receiving approval to substitute barbed-wire-topped chain link for the game-friendly agricultural fencing it committed to install. There is no public record of any modification to the vegetative screening plan.
The binding commitment remains what Blackford Solar itself presented to the Board on May 24, 2022.
What Blackford Solar says
The Blackford County Ledger contacted Blackford Solar's parent company, Leeward Renewable Energy, on June 30, 2026 with specific questions about the discrepancy between the approved fencing plan and the installed perimeter, and about the status of the vegetative screening. The Ledger requested a response by [Thursday's date].
[INSERT RESPONSE OR: As of publication, Leeward Renewable Energy had not responded to the Ledger's inquiry.]
About the project
Blackford Solar Energy, LLC is a subsidiary of Leeward Renewable Energy, a Dallas-based developer owned by OMERS Infrastructure, the infrastructure investment arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System — one of Canada's largest pension funds.
The project is a 150-megawatt solar photovoltaic facility located on approximately 1,250 acres in Blackford County. The Blackford County Commissioners and County Council approved a 10-year, 75 percent tax abatement for the project in April 2022, along with a committed minimum Economic Development Payment of $4.815 million.