Politics

Trump Admin’s Energy Plans Clash With Solar Giant

Ceinturion/Wikimedia Commons

The Trump administration on Tuesday will auction off geothermal leases on Nevada desert land that solar developers want for their own projects.

NextEra Energy, a major solar developer, has asked the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to “remove, defer or reconfigure” three parcels that it said cover roughly 60 percent of the 1,000-megawatt Sawtooth solar project it plans in Nye County, Reuters reported Monday. The agency denied the request in August and pointed to its mandate to manage public land for multiple uses.

A geothermal lease does not authorize work that disturbs the land, an Interior Department spokesperson said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. Developers would still have to submit exploration or construction plans for approval, including environmental reviews and consideration of other projects, the spokesperson said.

Geothermal plants use heat beneath the ground to generate electricity and can operate around the clock, according to the Department of Energy.

Nevada’s October 2025 geothermal sale raised a record $9.4 million, with bids on 86 parcels, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said on X that month.

Alex Stevens, manager of policy and communications at the free-market Institute for Energy Research, said that the BLM should settle competing development plans before leasing disputed land, in a statement to the DCNF.

NextEra did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

“BLM should stop treating high-conflict parcels as blank acres that can be leased first and sorted out later,” Stevens said.

Stevens urged the agency to evaluate where projects could connect to the grid and how soon they could be built, among other factors. The bureau could change parcel boundaries, allow uses at different times or select a project with a realistic prospect of construction, he said.

Stanford University professor Roland Horne stated that sharing land can work, though a geothermal power plant needs space where solar panels cannot go, in a statement to the DCNF.

“It’s even quite feasible to have wind and solar farms with geothermal wells drilled underneath them, if the appropriate rights and leaseholders are in agreement,” Horne said.

If NextEra receives approval first, a geothermal developer would need to prevent impacts on the solar project or pay the company compensation, the BLM wrote in its response to public comments. “NextEra must collaborate with any potential lessee and adjust its operations accordingly to avoid land use conflicts,” the agency said.

The BLM initially announced 83 parcels across 10 Nevada counties, then revised the acreage to about 265,155 in a September amendment. One parcel that overlaps the Sawtooth site no longer appears on the auction website, Reuters reported.

Invenergy’s planned 300-megawatt Nivloc project and Arevia Power’s 1,500-megawatt Gold Dust project also overlap proposed geothermal parcels, according to sale documents cited by Reuters. Leeward Renewable Energy identified about 735 acres where a geothermal parcel covers part of its proposed Lone Mountain solar farm in Esmeralda County, in comments to the bureau

Half of the money from bids, rents and royalties from Tuesday’s sale will go to Nevada, a quarter to the county where each lease sits and a quarter to the U.S. Treasury, according to the BLM.

Geothermal leases last 10 years initially and can be extended for active exploration, development or production, according to the agency’s Nevada program page.

Nevada has 28 geothermal plants that are running or authorized on land with a federal interest, with more than 950 megawatts of authorized capacity, according to the BLM.