NEW ENTHUSIASM FOR GEOTHERMAL

Bidders show significant interest in California desert during lease sale for energy rights by Bureau of Land Management

- BY HAYLEY SMITH

GARY CORONADO Los Angeles Times
GEOTHERMAL vents at the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge in Calipatria, Calif.

For the first time in nearly a decade, federal officials on Tuesday auctioned off leases for new geothermal energy projects in California — and all 13 parcels offered received bids.

Dozens of buyers participated in the Bureau of Land Management’s online sale of 10-year leases on 23,000 acres in Imperial, Lassen and Modoc counties. Geothermal is a growing source of energy that can produce clean electricity 24 hours a day, unlike wind and solar power.

Typically the technology involves drilling wells into pockets of steam and hot water rising from the center of the Earth, which then spin turbines to generate power.

Many experts see an expanded role for geothermal in addressing climate change, and say it could be key in meeting California’s clean energy goals, including reaching carbon neutrality by 2045. California is already home to the world’s largest geothermal field—the Geysers in Sonoma and Lake counties — as well as a major field in the Salton Sea area.

Tuesday's winning bids ranged from $2 to $247 an acre. Twelve of the parcels are in Imperial County, with most in the Salton Sea Basin, though not the Salton Sea itself. The 13th parcel, a 240-acre tract bridging Modoc and Lassen counties, sold for $2 an acre.

The bidders are banking on the idea that new tools and technology will help them harness more of Earth's natural heat as a source of electricity.

“There’s a lot of excitement around geothermal,” said Eric Gimon, a senior fellow with the nonpartisan think tank Energy Innovation.

Until recently, only certain areas were thought to have geothermal potential. In the U.S., the most favorable are in the western half of the country, where some of the most promising sites such as the Geysers have already been tapped.