Solar land auction nets two sales, more slated - Charlotte Business Journal:

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million, with a third deal potentially inthe works. Buyera of the small parcels werenot identified, but Kuldi Verma, president and CEO of , whichn sold the land, said the buyers had interest in developing the land'sx solar potential. Vermaland also is lookinf at sellinga 3,600-acre parcel at auction within the next six montha in the county’s western reaches. Whilee the first auction focused on fivesmaller parcels, a contiguous site such as Vermaland’as could draw a highefr premium, if companies believe it has access to water and powef lines.
“Several large-scale utility companies have expresserd interest in the property once the site is said Verma, who added the site has watedr rights, on-site wells and a low While the company was able to sell the two prices were below what neighboring land has been sellingh for. The goal was to spur solar companies to purchase land rather than simply tieit up, Vermw said. The properties sold at Saturday’x auction included an 80-acre site in the Tonopah area for $340,00o0 and a 320-acre site in Tonopah for $2.234 million. The company did not identifu which of the remaining three properties mightt be involved inanother deal.
“The auction brought the propertiezs to the attention of some partiea that we had never been incontact with, as well as remindecd others we had spoken with in the past of the which is highly suitable for solar said Anita Verma-Lallian, the company’s marketingh director. Vermaland already had sold land toseveral California-basesd utilities looking to develop renewable resources to meet that state’es standards for clean energy. Solar energy developerss have been placing applications on state and federakl lands in western Arizonaq for the past three and private land owners have been negotiating as developers look for thebest parcels.
As companiesx scout for land, they also face financing issuesa and none of the proposedc projects in Arizona hasbroken ground. Arizona’s main sola corridor includes Vermaland’s parcels, an area that stretches from Yuma to Phoenixc and Tucson seen as a huge growthu area fordeveloping utility-scale solar power