Nye County will realize $561,815 in revenue from five geothermal leases auctioned by the Bureau of Land Management this month, which will also probably lead to a power plant constructed near the Lander County line.

The BLM took bids on 49 leases, 43 of them in Nevada covering 122,849 acres, during an auction in Reno Aug. 14. Other leases were auctioned off in Churchill, Pershing, Mineral and Lander counties. Winning bids in Nevada totaled $11.4 million, the state receives half the proceeds and the counties one quarter.

Raser Power Systems of Salt Lake City, submitted successful bids on a 5,000-acre parcel for $45,000, a 4,273-acre parcel for $170,960 and a 1,891 acre parcel for $122,980. Silver State Geothermal, LLC of Santa Monica, Calif., bid on two other leases in northern Nye County, a 3,751-acre tract for $1.125 million and a 2,445 acre-lease for $782,720.

Steve Brown, vice-president of Raser Technologies, said the leases are in a geothermal zone in Big Smoky Valley from the Lander County line down to Carvers. Raser Technologies has two business segments, one branch that focuses on efficiency to improve electric motors, the other to develop geothermal electric power plants.

The leases awarded to Raser Power Systems overlap into Lander County and surround the Adobe Ranch and the Triple T Ranch, Brown said. Another lease is six miles south of the county line around the McCloud Ranch, he said.

The company also has another property just south of the RO Ranch.

Brown said the Silver State Geothermal leases are around the Darrough Hot Springs area, near Carvers.

"Generally we are in the business of developing power plants, selling the power. That's part of our process as we move ahead," Brown said. "Once you decide what the development plans are, more than likely you'll go through an environmental assessment process with the BLM. As we move ahead there's going to be plenty of input."

"The BLM is trying to expedite geothermal in Nevada. It would take nine months to a year to get an environmental assessment," he said. "In general the state of Nevada is very promising. I think there's 34 hot springs and wells in the Big Smoky Valley."

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D.-Nev., promoted the geothermal resources of Nevada during a town hall speech in Pahrump at the same time the leases were being auctioned.

Brown described the typical development plan of the geothermal leases: "It involves drilling wells, putting in a power plant and connecting to the existing transmission line, selling it probably to a utility."

Sierra Pacific is the utility provider in the area.

Nevada had 15 geothermal power plants with a capacity of 276.4 megawatts of power as of May, according to a report by the Geothermal Energy Association. Churchill County is a particularly active zone, that county will realize $742,313 from the latest auction. The May report also lists a project in Fish Lake Valley in Esmeralda County, developed by Esmeralda Energy Company, with a capacity of producing anywhere from 49 to 118 megawatts. By comparison the peak demand of the Valley Electric Association system is 125 megawatts.

In addition to the bonus bids submitted, Brown said the company typically will pay $1 per acre for the leases and $1 per year rent to the BLM. He said it was the first time the BLM offered geothermal leases under a competitive bid process.

The term of the leases is for 10 years, with renewable rights up to 40 years if the lessee is producing geothermal energy.

"We were extremely pleased with the unexpectedly high interest in our first competitive sale, in June, for lands in Idaho and Utah," BLM Deputy Director Henry Bisson said in a written statement. "The success of today's sale (in Nevada) is a harbinger of continued rising interest in developing the nation's considerable geothermal energy resources, most of which are found on public lands."

The Reno auction included more than 2,700 acres in the famed Geysers geothermal field in California, which brought a high bid of $14,000 per acre for a 470-acre parcel by Binkley Geo Resources, LLC of Santa Monica, Calif. The highest bid for the Nevada leases was submitted by Ormat Nevada or Reno, of $510 per acre for a 5,120-acre parcel.

Nye County Assistant Manager Pam Webster said the $561,000 in revenue would be deposited in the general fund. As a one-time expenditure it wouldn't be used for recurring expenses, like personnel, she said.