The Nolin Hills Wind Power Project’s solar farm near Echo will cover as much as 1,900 acres. After the Oregon Supreme Court ruled against Umatilla County’s windmill-to-residence setback, construction could begin in 2025 on the $1 billion-plus combination wind-and-solar farm.

PENDLETON — The Oregon Supreme Court on April 18 gave Umatilla County a setback on its rules regarding wind farms.

The Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council on July 19, 2023, approved the site certificate for the Nolin Hills Wind Power Project, the Edmonton, Alberta-based Capital Power’s proposed 48,196-acre wind and solar generation facility in Umatilla County.

The approval meant Capital Power could build wind turbines within 1.25 miles of residences while the county’s code called for a 2-mile setback. The county fought for that distance all the way to the state Supreme Court.

The high court decided the siting council could ignore Umatilla County’s setback requirement.

Justice Christopher Garrett wrote in the court’s opinion that OEFSC had the authority to approve the Nolin Hills Wind application for the wind energy facility and to issue a site certificate allowing construction of that facility, “notwithstanding that the proposed facility failed to comply” with Umatilla County’s land-use rule for a two-mile separation between a windmill and homes.

“I think the thing that hit me hardest was when OEFSC actually had their hearing here, they actually encouraged every county to have their own set of rules and regulations,” Umatilla County Commissioner Cindy Timmons said. “We have 36 counties and their 36 differences. That came right out of the mouth of the committee, and yet they ignored Umatilla County’s land-use rules and chose to circumvent them with a double standard. That’s wrong.”

The county adopted the setback rule years ago.

“There’s a whole group of people that worked very hard to get those setbacks in place,” Timmons said, “so they certainly can’t be discounted, just because this was years in the making.”

Nolin Hills sill be south of Interstate 84 on private land zoned for exclusive farm use approximately 4 miles south of Echo and 10 miles west of Pendleton.

Nolin Hills has been 14 years in the works and is slated to feature a nominal generating capacity of 600 megawatts and up to 373 megawatts of average energy, with 340 coming from up to 112 wind turbines and 260 from up to 1,900 acres of solar panels. The company reported its target for the number of windmills is 92.

Timmons estimated construction on the Nolin Hills project could now begin in 2025.