Battery energy storage facility agreements must require the grantee to remove, recycle, dispose of, and restore the site after decommissioning, and the landowner must request certain restoration work within 180 days after notice.
Sec. 303.0004. REQUIRED AGREEMENT PROVISIONS ON FACILITY REMOVAL. (a) A battery energy storage facility agreement must provide that the grantee is responsible for removing the battery energy storage facility from the landowner's property and that the grantee shall, in accordance with any other applicable laws or regulations, safely: (1) clear, clean, and remove from the property each battery energy storage resource, transformer, and substation installed and owned by the grantee; (2) for each foundation installed in the ground for a battery energy storage resource, transformer, or substation installed and owned by the grantee: (A) clear, clean, and remove the foundation from the ground to a depth of at least three feet below the surface grade of the land in which the foundation is installed; and (B) ensure that each hole or cavity created in the ground by the removal is filled with soil of the same type or a similar type as the predominant soil found on the property; (3) for each buried cable, including power, fiber-optic, and communications cables, installed and owned by the grantee: (A) clear, clean, and remove the cable from the ground to a depth of at least three feet below the surface grade of the land in which the cable is installed; and (B) ensure that each hole or cavity created in the ground by the removal is filled with soil of the same type or a similar type as the predominant soil found on the property; and (4) clear, clean, and remove from the property each overhead power or communications line installed and owned by the grantee on the property. (b) The agreement must provide that the grantee is responsible for: (1) collecting and reusing or recycling, or shipping for reuse or recycling, all components of the battery energy storage facility practicably capable of being reused or recycled, in accordance with any other applicable laws or regulations; and (2) properly disposing of components of the battery energy storage facility not practicably capable of being reused or recycled: (A) at a facility authorized under state and federal law to dispose of hazardous substances for a component considered hazardous under those laws; or (B) for nonhazardous components, at a municipal solid waste landfill or other appropriate waste disposal facility authorized under state and federal law to dispose of that type of component. (c) A wind power facility agreement entered into under Chapter 301 or solar power facility agreement entered into under Chapter 302 that authorizes the operation of a battery energy storage facility must include the provisions described by Subsection (b) and the financial assurance required by those chapters must be sufficient to secure the performance of the grantee's obligations under that subsection, in the manner provided by Section 303.0005. (d) The agreement must provide that, at the request of the landowner, the grantee shall: (1) clear, clean, and remove each road constructed by the grantee on the property; and (2) ensure that each hole or cavity created in the ground by the removal is filled with soil of the same type or a similar type as the predominant soil found on the property. (e) The agreement must provide that, at the request of the landowner, if reasonable, the grantee shall: (1) remove from the property all rocks over 12 inches in diameter excavated during the decommissioning or removal process; (2) return the property to a tillable state using scarification, V-rip, or disc methods, as appropriate; and (3) ensure that: (A) each hole or cavity created in the ground by the removal is filled with soil of the same type or a similar type as the predominant soil found on the property; and (B) the surface is returned as near as reasonably possible to the same condition as before the grantee dug holes or cavities, including by reseeding pastureland with native grasses prescribed by an appropriate governmental agency, if any. (f) The landowner shall make a request under Subsection (d) or (e) not later than the 180th day after the later of: (1) the date on which the landowner receives from the grantee via certified mail a copy of a notification of intent to suspend operations filed with a grid operator indicating an intent to permanently cease operations; or (2) the date the landowner receives written notice of intent to decommission the battery energy storage facility from the grantee. Added by Acts 2025, 89th Leg., R.S., Ch. 281 (H.B. 3809), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2025.