TodayToday's edition
The Nevada geothermal lease sale on Oct. 20 sold 60 parcels covering 186,641 acres. Two parcels overlap NextEra's proposed 1-GW Sawtooth solar site, and BLM has not decided its right-of-way application.
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A geothermal drilling rig in a BLM image, shown for context; it is not one of the Nevada parcels sold on Oct. 20.
Image: Bureau of Land Management
Source · Press image from the Bureau of Land Management announcement page, used for news reporting.
The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) raised nearly $4.83 million at its Nevada geothermal lease sale on Oct. 20, selling leases on 60 parcels of federal land covering 186,641 acres, according to Utility Dive. The outlet said the auction generated less per acre than a similar sale in the same state in 2025.
Ormat Technologies was the largest bidder, paying around $2.3 million for eight parcels covering about 20,263 acres, Utility Dive reported. BLM had marked 83 parcels for sale. It pulled 10 "for other reasons", none because of protests, and the remaining 13 drew no bids. ThinkGeoEnergy, which tracks the sector, puts the Nevada result at roughly $26 per acre.
Nevada's October sale raised $4.83M, below the roughly $9.4M of 2025 and New Mexico's $16.5M in June, Utility Dive reports.
Illustration (AI-generated)
The 2025 Nevada sale sold roughly 280,000 acres and brought in total receipts of around $9.4 million, Utility Dive said. June's New Mexico geothermal auction raised $16.5 million, which the outlet describes as the second-highest-grossing sale in BLM history. Nevada's 2026 result therefore sits well below both.
ThinkGeoEnergy estimates winning bids on US federal geothermal land are heading for an average of about $112 per acre in 2026, its own calculation from BLM and Interior results. That makes Nevada, the largest market by acreage, a cheap outlier against Utah's roughly $341 per acre in August. Voltgrid News reported earlier on Fervo's Cape Station geothermal plant.
Two of the sold parcels overlap the site of NextEra Energy's proposed 1-GW Sawtooth Energy Center solar project in Nye County, Nevada. They went to United Minerals and Mining for about $15,400 each, according to Utility Dive. NextEra has a right-of-way grant application pending for the site.
NextEra had asked BLM to "remove, defer, or reconfigure" three overlapping parcels before the sale, to avoid a potentially incompatible leasehold before BLM finished its review of Sawtooth. BLM declined, saying it manages the land for multiple use. One of the three parcels was not offered in the end.
BLM told NextEra that later authorizations such as rights-of-way must not unreasonably interfere with geothermal operations by a leaseholder. Because the parcel would be leased before NextEra's right-of-way is authorized, BLM said, NextEra must work with any lessee and adjust its operations to avoid land-use conflicts.
For developers the practical point is sequencing. A 1-GW solar plant and a geothermal lease can now claim the same ground, and BLM's position puts the burden on whoever is permitted second.
It is not clear whether United Minerals and Mining plans to develop the two parcels, or whether NextEra will change the Sawtooth layout. BLM has not decided NextEra's right-of-way application, according to Utility Dive. The next federal geothermal sales are in California on Oct. 27 and Idaho on Nov. 17, ThinkGeoEnergy reported.
