Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed Home Invoice 3809 into regulation Might 29, mandating that every one battery vitality storage methods (BESS) amenities be decommissioned on the finish of their lifecycle. This regulation, which takes impact Sept. 1, applies to each standalone BESS amenities and people co-located with photo voltaic and wind energy vegetation, and requires builders to signal a non-waiver clause forbidding any contractual modifications.
(A considerably related invoice, SB 1150, was despatched by the Texas legislator to Abbott’s desk requiring oil and gasoline corporations to plug deserted wells after 15 years, though that invoice supplies extra alternatives for flexibility and extensions for the fossil gasoline corporations.)
Fundamentals of HB 3809
HB 3809 could be very particular concerning its supposed targets. The principle provisions of the regulation are:
- Necessary decommissioning of BESS amenities at their finish of lifecycle: This course of contains the elimination of buried cables, transformers and inverters, and all foundations have to be dug a minimum of three toes deeper than the unique construction to make sure correct web site restoration.
- Landowners’ proper to request extra rehabilitation measures: Landowners can request that the house owners of the BESS gear undertake extra work reminiscent of eradicating inner roads, reseeding land with native vegetation and rehabilitating the land to agriculture requirements.
- BESS builders should present monetary assurance for decommissioning measures: Initiatives house owners will seek the advice of with a third-party engineer to offer a complete value for decommissioning, each earlier than the beginning of the undertaking and yearly till the termination of the lease or the fifteenth yr of the BESS.
Texas’ vitality actuality
Texas ranks first within the U.S. in whole wind energy manufacturing, and second nationally for photo voltaic capability. In 2024, wind and photo voltaic produced virtually 30 % of the state’s whole vitality, whereas coal produced round 11 %. Gasoline is the most important supply of vitality inside the state, accounting for greater than half of all electrical energy manufacturing in 2024.
Notorious for an unreliable grid that fails in excessive climate, Texas photo voltaic vitality and battery storage supplied grid stability in the course of the peak of summer season 2024, producing 25 % of energy wants throughout mid-day hours between June 1 and Aug. 31, based on the Electrical Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).
To retailer renewable vitality, as of 2024 Texas constructed 6,500 megawatts of utility-scale battery capability, based on the Vitality Data Administration.
Financial influence on battery storage
What does HB 3809 in the end imply for the the way forward for Texas’ battery storage trade?
“Its burden falls heaviest on lithium-based storage,” mentioned J. Goldsbury, VP of technique and improvement at Renuvi Vitality, including that HB 3809 “is greater than only a regulatory shift – it’s a market sign.”
Goldsbury defined that builders utilizing lithium-based batteries — probably the most broadly out there and market-ready kind of battery — will face better upfront prices resulting from HB 3809. And any cash probably recouped by promoting or recycling the decommissioned lithium is much from sure.
“Lithium markets are risky, and restoration economics are removed from predictable,” defined Goldsbury. “Present recycling initiatives are expensive and logistically complicated with a restricted variety of corporations at the moment out there within the U.S.”
“It might make it more durable for corporations to maintain there initiatives financially viable,” agreed James Allsopp, CEO of iNet Ventures, a PR company that works carefully with battery storage corporations.
However there are some constructive ramifications of the regulation.
“We see this regulation as a long-overdue recognition of what Renuvi has recognized from the beginning: not all battery methods are created equal and infrastructure-based deployments that help the ability grid ought to be designed with typical grid lifecycles in thoughts,” mentioned Goldsbury.
The regulation incentivizes continued battery storage innovation that may ultimately minimize waste from the know-how. “It encourages eco-friendly practices and cautious disposal,” mentioned Allsopp.
In fact, a big portion of federal funding to pay for this innovation is up within the air because the Senate continues to edit the Home’s reconciliation invoice.
