CAPE STATION IN BEAVER COUNTY
Brice Wallace
The federal government has green-lit a geothermal project in Beaver County that could supply enough power for over 2 million homes if fully developed.
The Bureau of Land Management has approved the Fervo Cape Geothermal Power Project, which eventually could generate up to 2 gigawatts of baseload power.
With that approval, the BLM has approved nearly 32 gigawatts of clean energy projects on public lands, including 42 projects approved under the Biden-Harris administration.
Unlike traditional geothermal project that rely on naturally occurring underground hot water to generate electricity, the Fervo project produces energy by injecting water into hot subsurface rock formations and then extracting the heated water.
Fervo Energy held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Cape Station project in September 2023, saying the 400-megawatt project would begin delivering around-the-clock, clean power to the grid in 2026 and reach full-scale production in 2028.
If fully developed, the project will cover approximately 631 acres, including 148 acres on public lands. The clean energy projects permitted by the BLM on public lands have a total capacity of nearly 32 gigawatts of power, or enough to power more than 14.5 million homes.
As part of the push to develop geothermal resources on public lands, the BLM has proposed a new categorical exclusion (CX) that would apply to geothermal resource confirmation operations plan of up to 20 acres, which can include drilling wells — for example, core drilling, temperature gradient wells and/or resource wells — to confirm the existence of a geothermal resource, to improve injection support, or to demonstrate connections between wells.
The proposal would accelerate the discovery of new geothermal resources throughout the West.
Currently, geothermal developers must conduct two separate environmental reviews: one for initial exploration drilling and another to fully test the geothermal resource, even if both have similar environmental impacts. The proposal would apply only to geothermal resource confirmation operations on public lands and split estates. Further geothermal development would still require additional environmental analysis. Such permitting actions could significantly reduce permitting timelines and capital costs of geothermal deployment.
Under the National Environmental Policy Act, CXs typically do not have significant impacts on the human environment. When used appropriately, CXs eliminate the need for an environmental assessment as part of the permitting process. CXs cannot be applied in cases with special circumstances, such as potential impacts to endangered species, in which case an environmental assessment must still be conducted.
Private investor interest in developing geothermal projects on public land was evidenced Oct. 8 when the BLM Nevada state office’s geothermal lease sale brought in near-record revenues, marking its most successful sale since 2008 and the second-most ever. The BLM sold 64 parcels covering nearly 218,000 acres, bringing in over $7.8 million in high bids. In contrast, the previous year’s sale of 96,600 acres totaled just over $1 million.
Geothermal energy, which generates electricity with minimal carbon emissions, can also be used to heat buildings, operate greenhouses and support aquaculture operations. Fifty-one operating power plants produce geothermal energy from BLM-managed public lands.
“Geothermal energy is one of our greatest untapped clean energy resources on public lands,” said Steve Feldgus, principal deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management at the U.S. Department of the Interior. “Today’s actions are part of the department’s work to deliver on new opportunities, new technologies, and new solutions in geothermal energy that support the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to create jobs, economic growth, and clean carbon-free electricity for communities throughout the West.”
“The BLM is committed to supporting the responsible growth of geothermal energy on public lands,” said BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning. “We need all the tools in the toolbox to reach a clean energy future, and this proposed categorical exclusion will be helpful in accelerating the process of locating new geothermal resources.”