Twin Falls, Idaho (KMVT) - Land around the Magic Valley has active geothermal sites, and the many hot springs in the area are proof to that; however, very little of it is developed commercially.

The Idaho Department of Land is pushing for more development of geothermal sites along with boosting money that would be headed to Idaho’s schools.

The Raft River Geothermal site south of Malta is one of the few generating facilities in the state, though there is the possibility of much more.

Idaho's rich, yet relatively un-tapped, geothermal activity is catching the eye of about 80 companies looking to develop sites across the state, including endowment lands.

Idaho’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna said, "Currently those public lands primarily are... they generate revenue through timber harvest and through grazing rights. When we see more and more emphasis on researching alternative energy options then these public lands, many of them sit on geothermal..."

Luna says any more money that can be pumped into Idaho’s classrooms is a good thing; and the Idaho Board of Land Commissioners has cleared the way for these lands to generate more money from geothermal development by auctioning off leases.

"The auctions is a process that we have used with our oil and gas leases, we've made several hundred of thousands of dollars on those."

So rather than hand over the lease to whom ever comes first, it would have to go to the highest bidder.

However companies, who bid, would need to show they have the ability to develop a geothermal site and follow through with their plans.

"What wed really like to do, we want to encourage and incentives development on state lands but we want folks to come in and do that develop it not just tie land up."

It would be similar to how the department of lands issues leases to wind energy projects now.

And officials say that new technologies have allowed further development of previous geothermal sites that were originally thought to be unusable, making the possibility for greater development of one of Idaho’s natural resources.