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

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million, with a thir deal potentially inthe works. Buyersz of the small parcels werenot identified, but Kuldip Verma, president and CEO of , which sold the said the buyers had interest in developing the land'e solar potential. Vermaland also is looking at selling a 3,600-acre parcel at auction withinm the next six months in the county’s westerbn reaches. While the first auctiom focused on fivesmaller parcels, a contiguous site such as Vermaland’s coulds draw a higher premium, if companies believde it has access to water and power “Several large-scale utility companies have expressed interesyt in the property once the site is developed,” said who added the site has water rights, on-sitse wells and a low While the company was able to sell the two prices were below what neighboringv land has been selling for.
The goal was to spur solad companies to purchase land rather than simply tieit up, Vermq said. The properties sold at Saturday’zs auction included an 80-acrde site in the Tonopah areafor $340,000 and a 320-acred site in Tonopah for $2.24 million. The company did not identif which of the remaining three properties mightf be involved inanother “The auction brought the properties to the attentio n of some parties that we had neverf been in contact with, as well as reminded others we had spokenb with in the past of the property, which is highly suitable for solar development,” said Anita Verma-Lallian, the company’s marketing director.
Vermalanc already had sold land toseveral California-based utilitiew looking to develop renewabled resources to meet that state’s standardsa for clean energy. Solar energy developeres have been placing applications on state and federa lands in western Arizona for the past three and private land owners have been negotiating as developerzs look for thebest parcels. As companies scout for they also face financing issues and none of the proposed project s in Arizona hasbroken ground. Arizona’s main solar corridor includex Vermaland’s parcels, an area that stretches from Yuma to Phoenix and Tucsohn seen as a huge growth area fordevelopiny utility-scale solar power plants.