The Department of the Interior announced Thursday that it has approved the 2-GW Fervo Cape Geothermal Power Project in Beaver County, Utah. In addition, the Bureau of Land Management said it is proposing a new categorical exclusion from certain National Environmental Policy Act requirements to accelerate the discovery of geothermal resources.
On Oct. 8, BLM said that its Cedar City Field Office has reached a Finding of No Significant Impacts from the project and issued a decision approving it. The 30-day period to appeal the decision will end on Nov. 7.
The project, developed by Fervo Energy, will cover around 631 acres — 148 of those on public lands, Interior said in a release. Fervo Energy announced in September that it had achieved “record-breaking reservoir performance” at its Cape Station project in southwestern Utah, using advanced drilling techniques adopted from the fracking industry, and resulting in well tests that established the project as the most productive enhanced geothermal generating station in history.
The proposed Beaver County construction will include “well drilling, well stimulating, well completing, and well testing of an estimated 320 geothermal wells, as well as on-lease access road construction or improvements, a power distribution network composed of sub-transmission lines, an electrical switchyard, a general tie-in transmission line, a geothermal fluid pipeline gathering system, and the construction and maintenance of an off-lease power transmission corridor and associated maintenance road,” according to BLM’s environmental assessment.
BLM’s proposed categorical exclusion would streamline the permitting process for “geothermal resource confirmation operations plan of up to 20 acres” by providing an exemption for them under NEPA, which currently requires completing two separate environmental reviews.
“Today’s permitting proposal would help accelerate the discovery of new geothermal resources throughout the West, especially in states like Nevada, home to some of the largest undeveloped geothermal potential in the country,” Interior said.
The announcements “follow the BLM Nevada State Office’s geothermal lease sale on October 8, which brought in near-record revenues, marking the most successful sale since 2008 and the second-most ever,” Interior said.
The BLM sold 64 parcels of land containing nearly 218,000 acres for over $7.8 million in high bids, which “marks a sharp increase from the previous year’s sale of 96,600 acres for just over $1 million,” Interior said.
