This article is featured in the Summer 2025 issue of Texas LAND magazine. Click here to find out more.
Renewable energy is changing the landscape of Texas.
“Renewable energy is on a lot of landowners’ minds,” said Andrew Earl, Director of Conservation for TWA. “It is a rapidly emerging industry that is affecting land use, influencing land values and impacting society and culture.”
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Texas produces about 16 percent of the nation’s total electricity generation. In 2023, on the state-level, renewable sources provided almost 30 percent of total state electricity net generation. Texas is the nation’s largest producer of wind energy and second largest producer of solar energy.
Renewable energy leaves a footprint. For instance, the Roscoe Wind Complex sprawls across four counties and encompasses almost 100,000 acres, making it one of the largest wind farms in the world. The Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center near Wingate impacts another 47,000 acres.
When it comes to solar energy, Texas is expected to add a total of 100 GW of new solar capacity over the next decade, according to a blog published by the Texas Real Estate Research Center on October 10, 2024. It is estimated that one GW of solar power requires a solar array covering 5,000 to 7,000 acres, so to reach 100 GW would require 500,000 to 700,000 additional acres.
Demand for energy will continue to soar as long as Texas’ population continues its meteoric rise.
“Because there is minimal regulatory oversight and no predictability in leasing, neighbors and community members often end up arguing about these things in town halls and county courthouses and creating conflict across fence lines—it’s changing rural Texas,” Earl said.
The Texas Legislature is currently considering legislation, supported by TWA, that would create a regulatory framework for the fledgling industry. The legislation proposes administrative rules, imposes fees and requires the Texas Public Utility Commission to approve wind and solar projects before they can break ground.
“As an organization, TWA fully supports landowners’ rights to manage and use their property as they see fit, but we also support creating a framework that minimizes the impact that renewable energy development has on the environment and on neighboring landowners,” Earl said. “It’s all about balance.”
And education.
“In the face of a rapidly growing, changing industry, a landowner’s best tools are education and solid information,” Earl said.
To that end, the organization has dedicated its annual day-long Private Lands Summit 2025, scheduled for July 10 in San Antonio, to the topic. “Ranching Renewables: Landowner Perspectives on Renewable Energy Development” will begin with an overview of Texas’ energy needs and the role renewables will play to meet them and then will follow the cycle of a renewable energy lease. Experts will cover a variety of topics ranging from initial negotiations and site assessment to the decades-long operational phase and finally decommissioning and reclamation.
Decommissioning and reclamation are particularly hot topics because Texas is just beginning to see the first wave of wind turbine retirement. Until the last five years or so, there were no bonding requirements or rules to hold companies responsible for disposing of the energy generation equipment and helping landowners restore their land. The laws that were put into place were not retroactive, so landowners and their attorneys are grappling with that reality now.
“Chris Nichols, Senior Counsel with Brady & Hamilton, will discuss the current case law that is playing out in courtrooms across Texas,” Earl said. “The future of the industry and the landscape is being hammered out now.”
Another topic that is not on the agenda yet, but likely will be, is green hydrogen. Green hydrogen is the process of splitting water molecules and capturing pure hydrogen molecules to be used as a fuel source. Several green hydrogen projects are being proposed for Texas.
The projects are raising concerns because they are water intensive, and most are proposed for water-stressed areas. Plus, they require a large amount of green energy infrastructure that is off-the-grid, and the hydrogen will have to be pipelined to ports where it will be shipped to supply overseas markets. Currently, no domestic end-users will benefit.
“Again, we’re want our members and attendees to be ahead on the learning curve,” Earl said.
The Private Lands Summit is the “meaty” kick-off to WildLife 2025, the 40th Annual TWA Convention, slated for July 10-12 at the J.W. Hyatt Hill Country Resort and Spa. The $150 ticket includes the program, lunch and a post-event reception sponsored by the East Foundation that celebrates its 3MT Competition that ends the day. During the 3MT Competition, graduate students are challenged to present their research in three minutes using language that speaks to landowners.
“The Private Lands Summit has earned the reputation as the ‘meat and potatoes’ of the TWA Convention because every year the topic is something that is timely, substantive and lasting,” Earl said. “By design it gives landowners information from a wide variety of sources that they can take home and apply to their land.”
PRIVATE LANDS SUMMIT 2025
Ranching Renewables: Landowner Perspectives on Renewable Energy Development*
July 10, 2025
- 8:00 AM Check-in
- 9:00 AM Welcome
- 9:15 AM Texas’ Growing Energy Demands (ERCOT)
- 10:00 AM The Current Landscape of Renewables in Texas
- 10:30 AM Break
- 10:45 AM Site Consultations & Negotiations
- 11:30 AM Industry Due Diligence
- 12:00 PM Lunch
- 1:00 PM Operational Power Generation: What Does It Mean for My Land?
- 1:45 PM Decommissioning: What Does the Future Look Like?
- 2:00 PM Hydrogen, Groundwater and You
- 2:30 PM Potential Legislative Guest
- 3:15 PM Break
- 3:30 PM East Foundation 3MT Competition
- 4:30 PM 3 MT Awards and Closing
- 4:45 PM East Foundation Social
*This agenda is tentative and subject to change.
WILDLIFE 2025
40th Annual Texas Wildlife Convention
July 10-12, 2025
JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort and Spa, San Antonio, Texas
HIGHLIGHTED EVENTS
- Thursday, July 10
Private Lands Summit
“Ranching Renewables: Landowner Perspectives on Renewable Energy Development” - Friday, July 11
TWA Foundation Luncheon
Joint Directors and Membership Meeting
TWA Family Dinner, Dance and Live Auction - Saturday, July 12
Concurrent Education Seminars
Texas Big Game Awards & TWA Awards Luncheon
TWA Grand Auction and Banquet Dinner
Find Out More
To get more information on or to register for WildLife 2025, TWA’s 40th annual convention including the Private Lands Summit, click here
