Texas Adds New Statutory Requirements on Land Leases for Wind Farms
The Texas Utilities Code was recently modified by House Bill 2845 to now require any person who leases land for a wind power facility (grantee) to be responsible for removing its wind power facility at the end of the lease, writes John Clardy, a summer associate at Holland & Knight.
“As part of this obligation, grantees must obtain financial assurance to secure the performance of the grantee’s wind power facility removal,” he explains in the firm’s Energy and Natural Resources Blog. “The new law specifies that land leases for a wind power facility must include particular provisions and voids any waiver that purports to exempt a grantee from the statute. The new law goes into effect on Sept. 1, 2019.”
Clardy added that the “decommissioning process entails clearing, cleaning and removing from the property each wind turbine generator (including towers and pad-mount transformers), each substation, each overhead power and communications line installed by the grantee, and all liquids, greases, or similar substances contained in wind turbine generators and substations.”
