Two European energy companies are locking up land leases for wind farms in Boone County that would bring industrial-size wind turbines into the Indianapolis metro area.

One problem: Boone County's zoning laws prohibit wind turbines, so the proposals could ignite the most intense debate yet in Indiana over how to deal with the surging number of wind farms, which up until now have been relegated to rural counties in the northwestern part of the state.

The Boone County wind farm plans are so new that they haven't been presented yet to county government officials, although they have been discussed with landowners at public meetings. The plans call for anywhere from 100 to 260 wind turbines that would together generate 200 to 400 megawatts of electricity. The upper range is comparable in output to one midsize coal-burning power plant.

The companies look to lease 14,000 to 24,000 acres of land in Boone's less-populated western part, which includes the towns of Advance, Jamestown and Thorntown.

Wind energy companies are looking to Boone County because it's one of the windiest counties in the state.

Steve Niblick, executive director of the county's Area Plan Commission, said that because Boone County is in the path of suburban development spreading out from Indianapolis, "we are different than other counties with wind farms. There are just a lot of issues" the county must face, he said.

One of them: Does the county want to allow wind farms and their 200- to 300-foot-tall turbines, which would essentially rule out residential development on tens of thousands of acres for 30 years or longer (the length of a typical wind farm lease)?

"We do realize if we say yes (to wind farms) and they're put in, they are not going to go away," Niblick said.

The two companies leasing land in the county are enXco, which is based in Escondido, Calif., and owned by EDF Energies Nouvelles of Paris; and Gestamp Wind North America, a Houston company with a Spanish parent.

The enXco proposal calls for up to 130 turbines spread over 7,000 to 12,000 acres. Gestamp is looking at a similar-size farm. With large turbines costing up to $4 million each, the total of the two projects in Boone County could top $1 billion, counting lease payments and installation.

The companies have divvied up land where they're signing leases and not bidding against each other. "We're not competing, we're abutting," said Linda Grice, who's negotiating for land for Gestamp.

Boone landowners seem eager to lease their land to the wind farm developers, said enXco marketing manager Sandra Briner. "Obviously there is opposition in some areas, but the communities generally are pretty excited about what wind is going to bring them."

Average lease payments nationally are $5,000 a year per turbine, with smaller payments for easements on power lines and access roads and an upfront one-time check to lock up the land. In Indiana, most recipients of wind farm payments are farmers or farmland owners, who are eager to accept checks for thousands of dollars a year for setting aside just a quarter of an acre per turbine.

The Indiana Farm Bureau hosted a recent meeting for farmland owners to discuss the Boone proposals.

"They have to make a decision on what are the long-term payoffs. What are they giving up?" said Justin Schneider, a Farm Bureau attorney. "It's not like you are signing a one-year lease where you can get rid of somebody if you don't like them."

Just to the north of Boone County in Clinton and Tipton counties, Arlington, Va.-based energy company AES Corp. has proposed a 200-turbine wind farm over 75,000 acres.

Indiana's first wind farm opened last year in Benton County.