US rules on wind and solar

The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has finalized its rule governing solar and wind energy development on public lands.

The rule strengthens existing policies and creates a new leasing program that will support renewable energy development through competitive leasing processes and incentives to encourage development in suitable areas.

The rule formalizes key aspects of the BLM’s existing Smart from the Start approach to renewable energy development.

In particular, it supports project development in areas with the “highest generation potential and fewest resource conflicts through financial incentives, awarding leases through competitive processes and streamlining the leasing process”.

It also ensures transparency and predictability in rents and fees and updates the BLM’s current fee structure in response to market conditions, the organisation said.

The rule’s competitive leasing provisions will help renewable energy development flourish on the 700,000 acres of public lands that have been identified in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, BLM said.

The regulations will become effective 30 days after they are published in the Federal Register.

The rule refines the application review process and increases financial certainty by giving developers the option to lock in in fixed rate adjustments and providing for MW capacity fee phase-ins, BLM said.

However, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said the rule will make federal lands een less attractive to wind energy developers.

“(It) will add time, uncertainty, complexity, and expense to a process that was already more difficult than developing on private lands,” the AWEA said.

“The rule penalizes projects pursued outside of designated zones, yet there are no designated zones for wind energy and there may not be for years,” it said.

“This discriminatory treatment places wind energy at a competitive disadvantage to energy sources that have such areas designated and can avail themselves of the incentives to develop in these areas,” it added.

Image: Morgue File