How much land does a battery storage site need?
General information, not a substitute for the advice of an attorney.
Short answer: Indiana's state energy office estimates about 0.03 to 0.1 acres per megawatt (Indiana Office of Energy Development), or roughly 3 to 10 acres for 100 MW (our arithmetic). Setbacks, roads, and a substation can add to that.
How many acres per megawatt?
Utility-scale battery sites generally need about 0.03 to 0.1 acres per megawatt, compared with 0.2 to 0.3 acres per megawatt for natural gas plants (Indiana Office of Energy Development). The handout gives the figure per megawatt of power, not per megawatt-hour of storage, and we did not find a government or national lab figure per megawatt-hour to cite. For solar, see how many acres a solar farm needs.
What else takes up space?
- Fire-code spacing. NFPA 855, the national fire standard for energy storage, includes setbacks and other minimum safety conditions (Indiana Office of Energy Development). Where the State Fire Marshal's Office has jurisdiction, NFPA 855 (2020 edition) applies to systems above its size thresholds (Texas Department of Insurance).
- Distance from neighbors. Indiana's handout calls a site "remote" if it is 100 feet or more from property lines, roads, and structures; closer sites need extra 10-foot setbacks and other design measures (Indiana Office of Energy Development).
- Clearances. Best practice is 10-foot clearances from building exits and flammable vegetation (Indiana Office of Energy Development).
- Roads, fencing, and equipment. A battery site also includes transformers, substations, cables, and roads. Texas law requires the equipment and cables to be removed at the end, and roads to be removed if the landowner asks (HB 3809).
What Texas rules apply?
HB 3824 (2025) covers battery facilities of one megawatt-hour or more with a commercial operations date on or after January 1, 2027. State fire safety standards must be based solely on UL and NFPA standards, such as UL 9540A and NFPA 855 (2023 or later), and cities and counties may not adopt rules inconsistent with those standards (HB 3824). The law itself sets no setback distances. See battery storage fire safety.
HB 3809 added Utilities Code Chapter 303 for battery agreements entered into on or after September 1, 2025. The agreement must require financial assurance for removal, due by the end of the agreement or the 15th anniversary of battery operation, whichever comes first, and foundations and buried cable must be removed to at least three feet below the surface (HB 3809). See Texas decommissioning law.
Questions to ask
- How many MW and MWh is the project, and how many acres will be fenced?
- How many acres do setbacks, roads, and the substation add?
- How far will the batteries sit from my home, livestock, water, and property lines?
- Is the payment based on the whole leased area or only the fenced site?
More in our guide to battery storage leases in Texas.
General information from the sources linked above, not legal, tax, or financial advice.
Sources and helpful links
- Indiana Office of Energy Development in.gov
- Texas Department of Insurance tdi.texas.gov
- HB 3809 capitol.texas.gov
- HB 3824 capitol.texas.gov
More official contacts and resources: Helpful links.