Guides › Mineral rights
In much of Texas, the person who owns the surface does not own the minerals underneath. That split shapes every solar deal, because Texas law gives the mineral side powerful rights to use the surface.
When minerals are owned separately from the surface, Texas treats the mineral estate as dominant. The mineral owner can use as much of the surface as reasonably necessary to produce oil and gas, which can include drill pads, roads, and pipelines (Texas A&M AgriLife). That is why solar developers study the mineral title closely, including how many owners share it and whether it is already leased.
The mineral estate's power is not unlimited. In Getty Oil Co. v. Jones (1971), the Texas Supreme Court held that an oil company had to reasonably accommodate a farmer's existing irrigation system when a reasonable alternative existed, even though the alternative cost more (Hawke McKeon & Sniscak). The rule is often called the accommodation doctrine (Texas Real Estate Research Center).
Under the doctrine, the burden is on the surface owner, who generally must show that the mineral use substantially impairs or precludes an existing surface use and that a reasonable alternative is available (MineralView glossary). It limits how the minerals are developed; it does not let a surface owner stop mineral development.
In Lyle v. Midway Solar (Texas Court of Appeals, El Paso, 2020), a surface owner signed a 55-year lease letting a solar company use 215 acres of a 315-acre tract, and the mineral owners sued (Texas Tech law review note). The court treated the accommodation doctrine as the rule between the mineral and surface owners absent an agreement to the contrary, and the trial court had found the solar company owed no accommodation duty where the mineral owners had not developed and had no plans to (Texas A&M AgriLife, Texas Agriculture Law blog). The doctrine is fact-specific, so no single case settles every situation (R. Reese & Associates).
Because court outcomes are uncertain, solar developers often negotiate agreements directly with mineral owners that set aside where drilling can and cannot happen (R. Reese & Associates). As a landowner, ask whether the developer plans to get these agreements and who pays for them.
Sources differ on how to describe groundwater. Texas A&M describes the groundwater estate as dominant alongside minerals (Texas A&M AgriLife), while the Texas Real Estate Research Center notes that severing groundwater from the surface does not create a dominant estate, and that the Texas Supreme Court has applied the accommodation doctrine to groundwater (Texas Real Estate Research Center). If groundwater rights on your land are owned separately, ask an attorney how they affect a solar project.
Click your land on the map to get its free land report: flood zone, wetlands, nearest power line, soils, survey location, and the half-mile, 500-acre standout test. In Texas, parcel acreage fills in automatically.
General information from the sources linked above, not legal advice. Have a Texas attorney review mineral and surface issues before signing.
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