BLM wants to open vast area near Death Valley for California geothermal projects

The Bureau of Land Management announced Thursday that it plans to open 22,805 acres in California for geothermal leasing. 

The announcement kicks off a 30-day public protest period and a 60-day timeline for Gov. Gavin Newsom to review the decision from the state's perspective. If the BLM ultimately moves forward with its plan after viewing these comments, the agency projects a total project investment of $1 billion, with much of the development focused in Inyo County, which covers much of Death Valley and is about 100 miles west of Las Vegas. 

The land, called the Haiwee Geothermal Leasing Area Project, falls within the northern reaches of the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, which was created to conserve habitat while also increasing renewable energy generation. 

Industrial geothermal power production uses hot brine pumped from underground to create steam and generate electricity.

In Southern California, meanwhile, the Imperial Irrigation District has signed a power purchase agreement with Controlled Thermal Resources’ (CTR) subsidiary Hell’s Kitchen PowerCo 1, LLC for 40 megawatts of geothermal power.

IID is heralding the project as an important step to achieving its renewable energy goals while creating new jobs. Construction began at the Imperial Valley project last year, which is situated in the Salton Sea's exposed playa.  

The deal comes as the Australian company also looks to extract battery-grade lithium from around the Salton Sea. The brine that's integral to geothermal also holds minerals like lithium, which is expected to increase in value as the world electrifies cars and other infrastructure.  

The Salton Sea Known Geothermal Resource Area in the Imperial Valley already hosts 10 generating plants that can produce 327 megawatts, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, but geothermal only accounted for 4.5% of California's electricity mix in 2018.

IID and CTR expect geothermal power production to commence at the Hell's Kitchen project in 2023. Per the agreement signed on Jan. 7, electricity would be supplied for 25 years. 

All told, CTR expects the project to generate roughly 140 megawatts, according to CEO Rod Colwell. Of that, 33 megawatts would be used to process the lithium, 40 would go to IID and another 60 megawatts would be sold elsewhere.

“This resource is so large and so robust that we could generate 1,100 megawatts of power,” Colwell said, adding that if there were a market for that much geothermal, “we can deliver that.”

This latest project enjoys considerable support from IID, which board President Norma Sierra Galindo said is under pressure to secure more renewable energy due to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s clean energy goals. IID generated about 29% of its energy mix from renewables in 2017. 

Galindo said that, while the board has received some opposition to CTR’s project over concerns of induced seismicity, IID ultimately views the development as a “win-win.” The site is expected to create 186 permanent jobs.

“I would very much like to see them bring their project completely to fruition,” she said. “Number one because it will be a green project and number two because it already has created some jobs and it’s likely to create many more.”

Solving the puzzle of how to cost-effectively extract lithium from under and around the Salton Sea has for years bewildered the private sector. CTR, though, expects to produce tens of thousands of tons of lithium annually by 2025.

The company has access to roughly 7,000 acres, but Colwell said the development would be built on just 100 acres.

The project will use steam at a high temperature to concentrate lithium from brine in real time, without the need for evaporation ponds or a mine. Processed lithium is needed for electric car batteries, so the company is planning to market it directly to manufacturers.

“There’s no byproducts. There’s no reagents. There’s nothing like that. It’s a very clean, closed-circuit process,” Colwell said.

Mark Olalde covers the environment for The Desert Sun. Reach him at molalde@gannett.com, and follow him on Twitter at @MarkOlalde.