U.S. Nevada Geothermal Lease Auction Brings in Over $4.44 Million

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 20, the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management completed Nevada's 2026 competitive geothermal resources lease auction. A total of 83 parcels covering approximately 265,200 acres were offered, of which 60 parcels received bids, involving about 186,600 acres. The auction had 32 registered bidders, 18 of whom actually placed bids, submitting a total of 239 bids, with the total of winning high bids amounting to approximately $4,444,100. According to the auction results published by the Bureau of Land Management, the highest winning amount for a single parcel was $772,200, and the highest unit bid reached $201 per acre.

Ormat Technologies emerged as the developer with the largest investment in this auction, acquiring 8 parcels totaling approximately 20,000 acres, with winning bids totaling $2.29 million, accounting for about half of the total winning high bids. Among these, the company acquired a parcel of approximately 3,841 acres in White Pine County, eastern Nevada, at $201 per acre, setting the highest unit bid of this auction. Invenergy acquired 9 parcels totaling approximately 37,000 acres, paying approximately $694,900, making it the company that obtained the most leased acreage in this auction.

Another bidder, Glovate, acquired 6 parcels totaling approximately 24,000 acres, with winning bids of approximately $570,600. Competition in this auction was not evenly distributed across all parcels; more than one-third of the sold parcels were still awarded at the federal minimum starting bid of $2 per acre, while high-price bidding was mainly concentrated on a small number of parcels with resource conditions that drew developer interest.

Some of the geothermal lease parcels offered in this auction also spatially overlap with planned large-scale photovoltaic projects. Among them, two parcels overlapping with the Sawtooth solar project planned by NextEra Energy were acquired by United Minerals and Mining. The auction scope previously announced by the Bureau of Land Management covered multiple counties in Nevada and explicitly stated that federal geothermal lease lands are managed under the multiple-use principle.

Obtaining a geothermal lease right does not directly equate to entering the power plant development and construction stage. The Bureau of Land Management stipulates that after lease parcels are sold, operators must still submit site-level development plans and undergo further environmental review before carrying out specific geothermal development. Of the bid revenue, rents, and subsequent royalties generated from leases, 50% is allocated to the State of Nevada government, 25% to the county where the parcel is located, and the remaining 25% goes to the U.S. federal treasury.

The United States has held multiple federal geothermal lease auctions this year. This Nevada auction is the fourth in 2026 and the state's first federal geothermal lease auction this year. In 2025, the average winning price for similar auctions in Nevada was approximately $32 per acre; in August 2026, a geothermal lease auction in Utah reached an average winning price of $339 per acre.