The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is conducting a Dec. 19 competitive lease sale for geothermal energy development on 61 parcels totaling nearly 200,000 acres in Utah, Oregon and Idaho. The event will be held in Salt Lake City to lease 47 parcels in western and southwestern Utah, totaling 146,339 acres; 11 parcels in Oregon, totaling 41,362 acres; and three parcels in south central Idaho, totaling 8,676 acres.
Utah has only two geothermal powerplants, totaling 47 MW, but it has 1,440 MW of developable potential, reports the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Boise-based U.S. Geothermal’s 13-MW Raft River plant, Idaho’s first geothermal plant, began commercial service in January, and there are no plants in Oregon.