HB3228

HB3228 requires covered new wind and solar leases to put responsibility for reusable, recyclable and waste components on the facility operator, and to include those costs in cleanup financial assurance. It applies to agreements entered into on or after September 1, 2025; earlier agreements remain under former law. The governor signed June 20, 2025. Final law; history.

The lease must require the operator to collect and reuse or recycle—or ship for reuse or recycling—all components practicably capable of it, expressly including wind-turbine blades and solar photovoltaic modules. Recycling means processing an item to recover a usable product. Components not practicably reusable or recyclable must go to a facility legally authorized for that waste: hazardous components to an authorized hazardous-substance disposal facility, and nonhazardous components to an authorized municipal landfill or other appropriate disposal facility. The law neither labels every component hazardous nor requires recycling when it is not practicable.

The act expands the costs included in financial assurance—the guarantee, bond, letter of credit or other permitted backing for cleanup—to cover recycling or disposal as well as removal and restoration. The minimum remains based on estimated costs and salvage value, with the statutory adjustment for facility value pledged to outstanding debt. It is not a fixed dollar bond or an automatic cash payment to the landowner. Independent Texas-licensed professional engineers determine the estimates; the operator pays for the assurance and cost estimates and must keep the assurance sufficient.

Existing timing rules remain important. Wind estimates must be updated at least every five years. Solar estimate language requires an update on or before the tenth anniversary of commercial operations and at least once every five years after the commercial-operations date; HB3228 does not rewrite that timing language. Separate unchanged provisions require delivery of the assurance by the earlier of lease termination or the tenth anniversary for wind, and the earlier of termination or the twentieth anniversary for solar. An estimate deadline is not the same as the deadline to deliver the assurance. Wind assurance; solar assurance.

The definitions expressly address turbine components and battery energy storage supporting wind or solar operations. These are lease-based requirements, not a general rule for every standalone battery or rooftop panel. The solar chapter applies to generation assets and retains its exclusions for the defined electric utility and utility-owned supporting equipment. Existing rules make waivers of the chapters’ rights and duties void and allow an injured person to seek appropriate court orders to stop violations. Solar scope.