An auction of 323,222 acres of public land by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for geothermal leases, including parcels in Nye and Esmeralda counties, raised $8.9 million.

But under Senate Bill 1, passed by the Nevada Legislature during a one-day special session last December, counties won't receive 25 percent of the proceeds. The state will collect 75 percent, the BLM the remaining 25 percent.

Geoglobal Energy LLC of Chevy Chase, Md., was the successful bidder on five parcels totaling 19,163 acres in the northwestern corner of Nye County or jointly in Nye and Mineral counties. Those parcels were auctioned for $458,305, of which $114,576 would have previously gone to the county.

Rampower Inc. of Reno was the successful bidder on six parcels toaling 29,900 acres in Esmeralda County that brought in $312,583.

Bid prices were in the range of $5 to $32.50 per acre for Nye and Esmeralda County parcels. But elsewhere, Ormat Nevada Inc. paid $3,800 per acre for one parcel. The highest price for a single parcel was $2.65 million by TGP Development Co. for 5,045 acres.

Many of the leases -- 39 of the 108 parcels accounting for 116,313 of the 323,222 acres statewide -- were in the geothermal hotbed of Churchill and Pershing counties.

But the last three geothermal lease sales show companies are exploring the potential farther south.

During an August 2007 auction of geothermal leases, Nye County received $561,000 as its one-quarter share of the proceeds. During that auction, Silver State Geothermal of Santa Monica, Calif., and Raser Power Systems of Salt Lake City, Utah, bid on parcels in northern Big Smoky Valley near the Lander County line.

In August 2008, Rampower bid on 14,144 acres in Esmeralda County. Sierra Geothermal Power Inc. of Olympia, Wash., bid on another 3,737 acres. Magma Energy of Reno bid on a 2,560-acre parcel in Esmeralda County and a 2,560-acre parcel straddling Nye and Mineral counties.

Dan Schophet, executive vice-president of Rampower said his company now has five lease blocks in Esmeralda County in Clayton Valley, near the hot springs at Alkali just north of Goldfield.

"Our geologists think that area is a good place to go do some geothermal exploration, and if it is, we might be able to get as much as 100 megawatts out of it," Schophet said.

That's enough to power about 50,000 homes.

Geological work done about 20 years ago pointed to geothermal potential farther west in Fish Lake Valley, Schophet said. Some areas with geothermal potential aren't evident at the surface through hot springs or faulting, he said.

"We normally associate most of the geothermal activity on 50 or 100 miles or either side of the I-80 corridor," Schophet said. But he added, "There are some indications there is geothermal running down on the west side of the state."

Acquiring the lease is only the first step. Companies like Rampower then have to go through the environmental permitting, which Schophet estimated will take six to 18 months. The companies also have to do some exploratory drilling, to verify the temperatures and depths are at a level suitable for commercial development, he said.

"Geothermal resources on America's public lands offer significant environmental and cost benefits for energy producers," said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar in a prepared statement.

"This sale reflects the growing interest in developing these renewable public resources to meet the energy needs of Western communities. Together with the solar and wind energy initiatives we have launched, these projects will help us build a clean energy economy for the 21st century."

Geothermal energy accounts for 17 percent of the electricity generated from renewable sources in the U.S., according to the BLM. The BLM manages 560 geothermal leases, with 58 already producing 1,275 megawatts of power on public lands.

A programmatic environmental impact statement on geothermal energy opened 111 million acres of BLM land for leasing and 97 million acres of National Forest land, spurring the demand.

The EIS forecasts a potential for 5,540 megawatts of new power from additional geothermal plants by 2015.