The race is on to capture the ‘heat beneath your feet’

Geothermal development, which seeks to tap the heat deep below the Earth’s surface, is hot right now.

The clean, renewable energy is tapped from heat continuously produced inside the Earth and used for bathing, heating buildings and generating electricity.

Scientists have discovered that the temperature of Earth’s inner core is about 10,800 degrees, as hot as the surface of the sun.

In Utah this month, the Bureau of Land Management held a lease/sale of land for potential geothermal development, and it netted the most money per acre in recent history, with 14 parcels that brought in more than $5.6 million.

The parcels totaled 50,971 acres and were leased for an average of $111.47 per acre.

The combined bonus bids, rentals and subsequent royalties from the leases will be distributed between the U.S. Treasury, the state of Utah and the counties where the leases are located.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, most of the geothermal power plants in the United States are in Western states and Hawaii, where geothermal energy resources are close to the Earth’s surface.

California generates the most electricity from geothermal energy. The Geysers dry steam reservoir in Northern California is the largest known dry steam field in the world and has been producing electricity since 1960.

Utah ranks third in the nation for installed geothermal power, producing 84 megawatts of electricity.

Utah’s standout role in geothermal energy

Nine years ago, the University of Utah emerged as one of two final contenders in a national hunt to be home to a geothermal demonstration project.

The university and Sandia’s Nevada site beat out a volcanic area in Bend, Oregon, the Idaho National Laboratory near Idaho Falls, and a Sandia site at the U.S. Navy’s China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station north of Ridgecrest, California.

Ultimately, Utah was picked, achieving a unique victory because the Salt Lake team was the only contender that was a university and not a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory with more access to federal resources.

The victory meant that the the U.S. Department of Energy threw its financial muscle at Utah’s FORGE project, spearheaded by the university’s Energy & Geoscience Institute and watched by a lot of countries — including Germany, Japan, China and the United Kingdom.

The project in Beaver County involves the drilling of one of two deep, deviated wells seeking to capture geothermal energy bubbling at 437 degrees.

The enhanced geothermal technology works like a radiator, with the planned injection of water into one well that will then be brought up as steam to power a turbine to turn it into energy.

In 2023, the FORGE project proved its worth, with two deep vertical wells linked to a long horizontal conduit that made a connection.

The project injected 1,800 barrels of water into one well at five barrels a minute and achieved success when it flowed along the horizontal pathway to travel up the production well.

That same year, the Department of Energy announced $74 million in competitive funding available to Utah and other states for development of geothermal resources and technology.

In 2024, the agency agreed to extend the Utah FORGE project for another four years, granting an additional $80 million in funding.

Bryant Jones, executive director of Geothermal Rising, said this latest BLM offering is in stark contrast to a BLM auction just a few years ago.

In 2021, the industry was asked by the federal agency for nominations of land for potential geothermal development. The result was a submission of 175,000 acres for a sale in 2023. In that instance, just over 3,000 acres were put up for bid.

“So this is a huge change,” he said. “We know that it was heavily attended, and a lot of geothermal developers were not successful because there were so many bids. It’s not a good problem to have, but it is a positive trend that aligns with the momentum that we are seeing in the geothermal industry.”

Jones said the turnabout is based on the need for baseload energy and a clean renewable resource. Geothermal provides both, he added.

“I think we are seeing global politics as they are that there is a need for baseload energy that is local and with an American name that we can generate right here without relying on global supply chains, which are now in a lot of turmoil,” Jones said. “And geothermal does not require global supply chains the way that intermittent energy and fossil fuels are impacted by global supply chains.”

The oil shale revolution of 25 years ago exploded due to the advent of horizontal drilling, which is now key to geothermal development.

That technology opens up a lot more spots for potential geothermal, with Jones describing it as a game changer.

“We’re seeing a lot of interest from oil and gas developers.”

But unlike capturing fossil fuels, geothermal has unique qualities.

“It has the lowest life cycle carbon footprint of any renewable energy technology, less than solar and wind. It has the smallest environmental footprint of all energy technologies. So what we see are environmental organizations seeing these benefits that they far outweigh and surpass all other energy technologies,” he said.

Jones added geothermal enjoys support in the political space because it is an “everywhere” technology.

“Different sides of the political spectrum see and appreciate geothermal for the different attributes that it provides.”

Like other projects, geothermal faces the challenges of federal permitting. On average, Jones said it takes about seven years of environmental reviews for a developer to receive a permit.

“Geothermal doesn’t have a technology problem. It has a policy problem, and it’s a mature technology that’s been around for 100 years, more than 100 years. Once we address those policy challenges, the geothermal industry can take off in the United States.”