For the first time in nearly a decade, federal officials on Tuesday auctioned off leases for new geothermal energy projects in California — and all 13 parcels offered received bids. Dozens of buyers participated in the Bureau of Land Management‘s online sale of 10-year leases on 23,000 acres in Imperial, Lassen and Modoc counties. … [N]ew technology known as Enhanced Geothermal Systems is broadening the places where geothermal energy can be created. … Instead of searching for existing sources of hot subsurface water, they can create their own reservoirs by fracturing dry rocks underground and injecting them with water from above.