(a) Lands inside designated leasing areas may be made available for solar and wind energy development through a competitive leasing offer process established by the BLM under this subpart.

(b) The BLM may include lands in a competitive offer on its own initiative.

(c) The BLM may solicit nominations by publishing a call for nominations under § 2809.11(a).

(d) The BLM will generally prioritize the processing of “leases” awarded under this subpart over the processing of non-competitive “grant” applications under subpart 2804, including those that are “high priority” under § 2804.35.

(a) Call for nominations. The BLM will publish a notice in the Federal Register and may use other notification methods, such as a newspaper of general circulation in the area affected by the potential offer of public land for solar and wind energy development or the Internet; to solicit nominations and expressions of interest for parcels of land inside designated leasing areas for solar or wind energy development.

(b) Nomination submission. A nomination must be in writing and must include the following:

(1) Nomination fee. If you nominate a specific parcel of land under paragraph (a) of this section, you must also include a non-refundable nomination fee of $5 per acre. We will adjust the nomination fee once every 10 years using the change in the IPD-GDP for the preceding 10-year period and round it to the nearest half dollar. This 10 year average will be adjusted at the same time as the per acre rent schedule for linear rights-of-way under § 2806.22;

(2) Nominator's name and personal or business address. The name of only one citizen, association, partnership, corporation, or municipality may appear as the nominator. All communications relating to leasing will be sent to that name and address, which constitutes the nominator's name and address of record; and

(3) The legal land description and a map of the nominated lands.

(c) We may consider informal expressions of interest suggesting lands to be included in a competitive offer. If you submit a written expression of interest, you must provide a description of the suggested lands and rationale for their inclusion in a competitive offer.

(d) In order to submit a nomination, you must be qualified to hold a grant or lease under § 2803.10.

(e) Nomination withdrawals. A nomination cannot be withdrawn, except by the BLM for cause, in which case all nomination monies will be refunded to the nominator.

(a) The BLM will identify parcels for competitive offer based on nominations and expressions of interest or on its own initiative.

(b) The BLM and other Federal agencies, as applicable, will conduct necessary studies and site evaluation work, including applicable environmental reviews and public meetings, before offering lands competitively.

(a) Variety of competitive procedures available. The BLM may use any type of competitive process or procedure to conduct its competitive offer, and any method, including the use of the Internet, to conduct the actual auction or competitive bid procedure. Possible bid procedures could include, but are not limited to: Sealed bidding, oral auctions, modified competitive bidding, electronic bidding, and any combination thereof.

(b) Notice of competitive offer. We will publish a notice in the Federal Register at least 30 days prior to the competitive offer and may use other notification methods, such as a newspaper of general circulation in the area affected by the potential right-of-way or the Internet. The Federal Register and other notices will include:

(1) The date, time, and location, if any, of the competitive offer;

(2) The legal land description of the parcel to be offered;

(3) The bidding methodology and procedures to be used in conducting the competitive offer, which may include any of the competitive procedures identified in paragraph (a) of this section;

(4) The minimum bid required (see § 2809.14(a)), including an explanation of how we determined this amount;

(5) The qualification requirements for potential bidders (see § 2803.10);

(6) If a variable offset (see § 2809.16) is offered:

(i) The percent of each offset factor;

(ii) How bidders may pre-qualify for each offset factor; and

(iii) The documentation required to pre-qualify for each offset factor; and

(7) The terms and conditions of the lease, including the requirements for the successful bidder to submit a POD for the lands involved in the competitive offer (see § 2809.18) and any lease mitigation requirements, including compensatory mitigation for residual impacts associated with the right-of-way.

(c) We will notify you in writing of our decision to conduct a competitive offer at least 30 days prior to the competitive offer if you nominated lands and paid the nomination fees required by § 2809.11(b)(1).

(a) Bid submissions. The BLM will accept your bid only if:

(1) It includes the minimum bid and at least 20 percent of the bonus bid; and

(2) The BLM determines that you are qualified to hold a grant or lease under § 2803.10. You must include documentation of your qualifications with your bid, unless we have previously approved your qualifications under § 2809.10(d) or § 2809.11(d).

(b) Minimum bid. The minimum bid is not prorated among all bidders, but must be paid entirely by the successful bidder. The minimum bid consists of:

(1) The administrative costs incurred by the BLM and other Federal agencies in preparing for and conducting the competitive offer, including required environmental reviews; and

(2) An amount determined by the authorized officer and disclosed in the notice of competitive offer. This amount will be based on known or potential values of the parcel. In setting this amount, the BLM will consider factors that include, but are not limited to, the acreage rent and megawatt capacity fee.

(c) Bonus bid. The bonus bid consists of any dollar amount that a bidder wishes to bid in addition to the minimum bid.

(d) If you are not the successful bidder, as defined in § 2809.15(a), the BLM will refund your bid.

(a) The bidder with the highest total bid, prior to any variable offset, is the successful bidder and may be offered a lease in accordance with § 2805.10.

(b) The BLM will determine the variable offsets for the successful bidder in accordance with § 2809.16 before issuing final payment terms.

(c) Payment terms. If you are the successful bidder, you must:

(1) Make payments by personal check, cashier's check, certified check, bank draft, or money order, or by other means deemed acceptable by the BLM, payable to the Department of the Interior—Bureau of Land Management;

(2) By the close of official business hours on the day of the offer or such other time as the BLM may have specified in the offer notices, submit for each parcel:

(i) Twenty percent of the bonus bid (before the offsets are applied under paragraph (b) of this section); and

(ii) The total amount of the minimum bid specified in § 2809.14(b);

(3) Within 15 calendar days after the day of the offer, submit the balance of the bonus bid (after the variable offsets are applied under paragraph (b) of this section) to the BLM office conducting the offer; and

(4) Within 15 calendar days after the day of the offer, submit the acreage rent for the first full year of the solar or wind energy development lease as provided in § 2806.54(a) or § 2806.64(a), respectively. This amount will be applied toward the first 12 months acreage rent, if the successful bidder becomes the lessee.

(d) The BLM will offer you a right-of-way lease if you are the successful bidder and:

(1) Satisfy the qualifications in § 2803.10;

(2) Make the payments required under paragraph (c) of this section; and

(3) Do not have any trespass action pending against you for any activity on BLM-administered lands (see § 2808.12) or have any unpaid debts owed to the Federal Government.

(e) The BLM will not offer a lease to the successful bidder and will keep all money that has been submitted, if the successful bidder does not satisfy the requirements of paragraph (d) of this section. In this case, the BLM may offer the lease to the next highest bidder under § 2809.17(b) or re-offer the lands under § 2809.17(d).

(a) The successful bidder may be eligible for an offset of up to 20 percent of the bonus bid based on the factors identified in the notice of competitive offer.

(b) The BLM may apply a variable offset to the bonus bid of the successful bidder. The notice of competitive offer will identify each factor of the variable offset, the specific percentage for each factor that would be applied to the bonus bid, and the documentation required to be provided to the BLM prior to the day of the offer to qualify for the offset. The total variable offset cannot be greater than 20 percent of the bonus bid.

(c) The variable offset may be based on any of the following factors:

(1) Power purchase agreement;

(2) Large generator interconnect agreement;

(3) Preferred solar or wind energy technologies;

(4) Prior site testing and monitoring inside the designated leasing area;

(5) Pending applications inside the designated leasing area;

(6) Submission of nomination fees;

(7) Submission of biological opinions, strategies, or plans;

(8) Environmental benefits;

(9) Holding a solar or wind energy grant or lease on adjacent or mixed land ownership;

(10) Public benefits; and

(11) Other similar factors.

(d) The BLM will determine your variable offset prior to the competitive offer.

(a) The BLM may reject bids regardless of the amount offered. If the BLM rejects your bid under this provision, you will be notified in writing and such notice will include the reason(s) for the rejection and what refunds to which you are entitled. If the BLM rejects a bid, the bidder may appeal that decision under § 2801.10.

(b) We may offer the lease to the next highest qualified bidder if the successful bidder does not execute the lease or is for any reason disqualified from holding the lease.

(c) If we are unable to determine the successful bidder, such as in the case of a tie, we may re-offer the lands competitively (under § 2809.13) to the tied bidders or to all prospective bidders.

(d) If lands offered under § 2809.13 receive no bids, we may:

(1) Re-offer the lands through the competitive process under § 2809.13; or

(2) Make the lands available through the non-competitive application process found in subparts 2803, 2804, and 2805 of this part, if we determine that doing so is in the public interest.

The lease will be issued subject to the following terms and conditions:

(a) Lease term. The term of your lease includes the initial partial year in which it is issued, plus 30 additional full years. The lease will terminate on December 31 of the final year of the lease term. You may submit an application for renewal under § 2805.14(g).

(b) Rent. You must pay rent as specified in:

(1) Section 2806.54, if your lease is for solar energy development; or

(2) Section 2806.64, if your lease is for wind energy development.

(c) POD. You must submit, within 2 years of the lease issuance date, a POD that:

(1) Is consistent with the development schedule and other requirements in the POD template posted at http://www.blm.gov; and

(2) Addresses all pre-development and development activities.

(d) Cost recovery. You must pay the reasonable costs for the BLM or other Federal agencies to review and approve your POD and to monitor your lease. To expedite review of your POD and monitoring of your lease, you may notify BLM in writing that you are waiving paying reasonable costs and are electing to pay the full actual costs incurred by the BLM.

(e) Performance and reclamation bond. (1) For Solar Energy Development, you must provide a bond in the amount of $10,000 per acre prior to written approval to proceed with ground disturbing activities.

(2) For Wind Energy Development, you must provide a bond in the amount of $10,000 per authorized turbine less than 1 MW in nameplate capacity or $20,000 per authorized turbine equal or greater than 1 MW in nameplate capacity prior to written approval to proceed with ground disturbing activities.

(3) For testing and monitoring sites authorized under a development lease, you must provide a bond in the amount of $2,000 per site prior to receiving written approval to proceed with ground disturbing activities.

(4) The BLM will adjust the solar and wind energy development bond amounts every 10 years using the change in the IPD-GDP for the preceding 10-year period rounded to the nearest $100. This 10-year average will be adjusted at the same time as the Per Acre Rent Schedule for linear rights-of-way under § 2806.22.

(f) Assignments. You may assign your lease under § 2807.21, and if an assignment is approved, the BLM will not make any changes to the lease terms or conditions, as provided for by § 2807.21(e) except for modifications required under § 2805.15(e).

(g) Due diligence of operations. You must start construction within 5 years and begin generation of electricity no later than 7 years from the date of lease issuance, as specified in your approved POD. A request for an extension may be granted for up to 3 years with a show of good cause and approval by the BLM.

(a) Applications for solar or wind energy development filed on lands outside of designated leasing areas, which subsequently become designated leasing areas will:

(1) Continue to be processed by the BLM and are not subject to the competitive leasing offer process of this subpart, if such applications are filed prior to the publication of the notice of intent or other public announcement from the BLM of the proposed land use plan amendment to designate the solar or wind leasing area; or

(2) Remain in pending status unless withdrawn by the applicant, denied, or issued a grant by the BLM, or the subject lands become available for application or leasing under this part, if such applications are filed on or after the date of publication of the notice of intent or other public announcement from the BLM of the proposed land use plan amendment to designate the solar or wind leasing area.

(3) Resume being processed by the BLM if your application is pending under paragraph (a)(2) of this section and the lands become available for application under § 2809.17(d)(2).

(b) An applicant that submits a bid on a parcel of land for which an application is pending under paragraph (a)(2) of this section may:

(1) Qualify for a variable offset under § 2809.16; and

(2) Receive a refund for any unused application fees or processing costs if the lands identified in the application are subsequently leased to another entity under § 2809.13.

(c) After the effective date of this regulation, the BLM will not accept a new application for solar or wind energy development inside designated leasing areas (see §§ 2804.12(b)(1) and 2804.23(e)), except as provided by § 2809.17(d)(2).

(d) You may file a new application under part 2804 for testing and monitoring purposes inside designated leasing areas. If the BLM approves your application, you will receive a short term grant in accordance with § 2805.11(b)(2)(i) or (ii), which may qualify you for an offset under § 2809.16.