By Anastasia Hufham | The Salt Lake Tribune | Photo by Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune

The Bureau of Land Management announced Thursday that it leased over 50,000 acres of public land in Beaver, Iron and Sevier counties for geothermal projects.

The lease sales generated more than $5.5 million in total, averaging about $111 per acre, “the most per acre revenue of any previous geothermal lease sale on BLM public lands in Utah in recent history,” the agency said.

That money, and money from future royalties paid by companies that have leased the parcels, will be split between Utah, the county where the lease is located and the U.S. Treasury. The leases are for 10 years and allow for the exploration and development of geothermal resources.

Geothermal energy captures heat within the earth, a renewable resource, in the form of steam. Volcanoes and Yellowstone National Park’s famous geysers are examples of geothermal energy.

Utah has been at the forefront of emerging geothermal technology because of the state’s abundance of hot, accessible rock; scientists and developers don’t have to drill too deep to find good conditions.

Read more at SLTrib.com.

This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.