What Is a Solar or Wind Moratorium?

A moratorium is local government's pause button: a county board votes to stop accepting solar, wind, battery, or data center applications — typically for six months to two years — while it drafts zoning standards like setbacks, height limits, and decommissioning bonds. In practice, many moratoriums are renewed repeatedly or harden into outright bans, and in some states (Ohio's SB 52 is the best-known example) counties hold explicit statutory power to prohibit utility-scale wind and solar entirely.

Moratoriums are the leading edge of US clean energy siting conflict: hundreds of counties now restrict utility-scale renewable development in some form. CleanPowerDaily's Opposition Tracker logs these actions county by county, with each entry linked to the local report or record behind it, updated weekly.