Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed Home Invoice 3809 into regulation Might 29, mandating that every one battery power storage programs (BESS) services be decommissioned on the finish of their lifecycle. This regulation, which takes impact Sept. 1, applies to each standalone BESS services 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 comparable invoice, SB 1150, was despatched by the Texas legislator to Abbott’s desk requiring oil and fuel corporations to plug deserted wells after 15 years, though that invoice supplies extra alternatives for flexibility and extensions for the fossil gas corporations.)
Fundamentals of HB 3809
HB 3809 could be very particular concerning its meant targets. The principle provisions of the regulation are:
- Necessary decommissioning of BESS services at their finish of lifecycle: This course of contains the removing of buried cables, transformers and inverters, and all foundations have to be dug not less than three ft deeper than the unique construction to make sure correct website restoration.
- Landowners’ proper to request further rehabilitation measures: Landowners can request that the house owners of the BESS gear undertake further work akin to eradicating inside 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 venture and yearly till the termination of the lease or the fifteenth 12 months of the BESS.
Texas’ power actuality
Texas ranks first within the U.S. in complete wind energy manufacturing, and second nationally for photo voltaic capability. In 2024, wind and photo voltaic produced virtually 30 % of the state’s complete power, whereas coal produced round 11 %. Fuel is the biggest supply of power 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 power and battery storage offered 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, in response to the Electrical Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).
To retailer renewable power, as of 2024 Texas constructed 6,500 megawatts of utility-scale battery capability, in response to the Power Data Administration.
Financial impression 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,” stated J. Goldsbury, VP of technique and growth at Renuvi Power, including that HB 3809 “is greater than only a regulatory shift – it’s a market sign.”
Goldsbury defined that builders utilizing lithium-based batteries — essentially the most extensively obtainable and market-ready sort of battery — will face better upfront prices on account of HB 3809. And any cash probably recouped by promoting or recycling the decommissioned lithium is much from sure.
“Lithium markets are unstable, and restoration economics are removed from predictable,” defined Goldsbury. “Present recycling initiatives are pricey and logistically advanced with a restricted variety of corporations presently obtainable within the U.S.”
“It may 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 optimistic ramifications of the regulation.
“We see this regulation as a long-overdue recognition of what Renuvi has recognized from the beginning: not all battery programs are created equal and infrastructure-based deployments that help the ability grid ought to be designed with typical grid lifecycles in thoughts,” stated Goldsbury.
The regulation incentivizes continued battery storage innovation that can finally reduce waste from the expertise. “It encourages eco-friendly practices and cautious disposal,” stated 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.
