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For the first time in Colorado, the Bureau of Land Management will include a geothermal lease in its quarterly oil and gas lease sale, according to the BLM Colorado State Office. One parcel of nearly 800 acres near the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs Resort will be offered later this year for geothermal development.
The announcement follows a steady stream of news about geothermal development in Chaffee County. A recent presentation by Mount Princeton Geothermal LLC to the Upper Arkansas Valley Conservancy District suggested that a 10 megawatt geothermal plant could provide for 85 percent of the electrical needs in the Upper Arkansas Valley.
Geothermal resources, such as steam and hot water, are used directly to heat buildings and in greenhouses and aquaculture, and indirectly to generate electric power. Half of the nation’s geothermal energy production occurs on federal land, much of it in California and Nevada, and 90 percent of potential geothermal resources are located on public lands as well, according to the BLM. The earth’s crust may be slightly thinner in Colorado between Leadville and Paonia, a phenomenon known as the Aspen Anomaly, making this region more promising for geothermal development.
Chaffee County stands to benefit materially from the Mount Princeton lease, as geothermal lease revenues and royalties are shared with the states and counties where the leases are located, with 50 percent going to the state and 25 percent to the county. A competitive auction of lease parcels for geothermal energy resources on federal public lands in California, Nevada and Utah earlier this year generated a top per-acre bid of $3,800. Bidding for the Mount Princeton lease will start at $2 per acre.
The quarterly competitive oil and gas lease sale by the BLM will take place November 12 in Denver.
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