A Bureau of Land Management geothermal lease auction in New Mexico last June brought in over $16.5 million, making it the second-largest sale in agency history, while one plot commanded a federal record of $701 per acre, according to a BLM spokesperson. The results signal mounting competition for geothermal development sites on public land as electricity demand climbs and developers seek reliable power sources.
The June auction moved 47 plots at an average price of $107 per acre, more than triple the $32 per acre average seen at Nevada's October 2025 sale, Enverus Intelligence Research reported. Only 17% of parcels went for the $2-per-acre floor price, a sharp drop from 76% in 2019. Rock Canyon Resources placed the record-breaking bid, paying $3.14 million for a single 4,479-acre tract. The sale offered 68 parcels spanning roughly 197,000 acres in southern New Mexico and drew major players including Ormat Technologies, Zanskar, and Invenergy. New Mexico's previous federal geothermal lease sale in 2024 had offered just seven parcels.
"Competition is now materially moving federal geothermal bids," said Graham Bain, a principal analyst at Enverus Intelligence Research who wrote the analysis. The report finds that closeness to high-voltage transmission infrastructure emerged as the biggest financial driver in bidding, adding roughly $43 per acre in value. Bain noted that "for years operators could lock up acreage at the minimum bid, and New Mexico showed that window is closing."
Enverus's analysis reveals why transmission access has become such a premium: developers are willing to pay significantly more for land that can connect to existing grid capacity. The firm projects that average bids at Idaho's November lease sale could climb from $58 per acre under current conditions to $70 per acre once planned transmission lines go live, with 21 of the 35 Idaho parcels sitting within 25 kilometers of the Gateway West and Boardman-to-Hemingway routes. The research characterized a $344 per acre scenario as a possible upper boundary rather than a likely outcome. Additional BLM geothermal auctions are scheduled for Utah in August and Nevada in October, with the New Mexico results setting expectations for fiercer bidding. Revenue from federal geothermal leases gets split among the state, local counties where parcels sit, and the U.S. Treasury.