Mineral and right-of-way title for solar, wind and storage projects

A solar, wind or battery storage project is a land deal before it is an energy deal. The lease, the interconnection route and the financing all depend on knowing exactly who owns the surface, who owns the minerals, and what easements already cross the ground. That is title work, and on a project it is title work at scale: dozens or hundreds of parcels in one or two counties, all needed on the same schedule.

What a project title package includes

• Surface ownership for every parcel: current owner, vesting deed, legal description, and whether the record owner matches the person who signed the lease or option.

• Mineral ownership: whether minerals were ever severed from the surface, who holds them now, and any oil and gas leases of record. In the Illinois Basin counties this is the part that decides whether a project can be built without a mineral waiver.

• Easements and rights-of-way: pipelines, transmission lines, drainage, access, and anything that could conflict with the layout.

• Open mortgages and liens, with the lender identified so consents can be requested.

• A runsheet or chain diagram for each tract, and a project-level summary that a land manager can hand to the lender.

Patent-to-present or 60-year?

Underwriters and lenders usually want patent-to-present on the mineral side, because a severance from 1900 is still good. For the surface, a 60-year search is often enough. Many projects run both: a surface search to the standard the underwriter requires and a full mineral chain on every parcel. We scope that with you up front so the bid matches what the lender will actually ask for.

How we run a project

One point of contact, one report format for every tract, and one tracking sheet showing status per parcel. We pull online records where the county has them and send abstractors into the courthouse where it does not. Parcels are delivered as they finish, not held for the batch, so the land team can start curative on the early ones while the rest are in progress.

Across Indiana and Illinois we have run title on multi-tract energy and utility projects in counties including Posey, Shelby, Fountain and Fayette (IL). Our coverage map shows typical turnaround by county.

What to send us

A parcel list with county and parcel numbers, the product the lender wants, and the date you need it. If the land team has an ownership spreadsheet or prior title work, send that too. Order a search, or read more about mineral and energy title.