The Geothermal Energy Revolution In New Mexico Has Just Arrived!
On New Year's Day 1848, the territory of California was home to about 14,000 non-
native people. Three weeks later, James Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill, and
the California gold rush was on. By 1855, when the initial gold rush ended, California
had grown to more than 300,000 people and become a state. During that time
approximately 12 million ounces of gold nuggets were found, which in today's money
would be worth about 48 billion dollars.
Why mention this in a blog about geothermal energy? Because right now, a geothermal
gold rush has just started to take off in New Mexico. As short a time as two years ago,
only one of the 94 geothermal power plants in the United States was located here. It
was the Lightning Dock plant southwest of Lordsburg, which started operating in 2013
and had been losing money ever since.
In 2024, Zanskar Geothermal and Minerals bought the plant and the rights to explore for
more resources in the vicinity. Based on a new geologic model they drilled an
innovative production well. Testing has shown it to be the most productive pumped
geothermal well in the entire United States. Their new problem isn't how to turn a profit,
but how to get all the electricity they can produce to market.
Photo: Bureau of Land Management (BLM), licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Based on this result, and the efforts of many people to make New Mexico more
attractive for geothermal exploration and development, the United States Bureau of
Land Management (BLM) held a geothermal parcel auction this spring. 67 parcels were
put out to bid. 47 of these were won via a competitive bid process, while 11 non-
competitive parcels were also awarded. These parcels cover a total of 152,381 acres,
or 2,381 square miles, which is almost 2 percent of the entire land area of New Mexico.
The auction raised over $16,000,000 for the BLM.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Geothermal Lease Sale Parcels Map. Basemap © Esri, USGS and data providers.
For an expanded view of the parcels, click on the map and then enlarge what shows up
This is an almost unbelievable explosion of interest. While not all these parcels will
result in electrical power plants, enough will to be built to help cement New Mexico's
reputation as a mecca of new energy generation.