Commercial solar opportunity in Southern Utah

[Dustin Gale]

A family member of mine has a large parcel of land located in Southern utah. She has had several commercial solar companies contact her about wanting to lease the land. She would like to get that going but the company that she wanted to go with isn't able to install for another year or so. They are offering some where around $1000+ per acre per month with a contract of 20 years with the option to continue for 40 years in increments of 5 years.

I would like to learn as much as I can about this and be as useful as I can.

Does anyone know of other companies that do solar that may be interested?

What should we watch out for in a contact like that?

How can we make the most out of the deal?

Is there anything else we could do to move things along faster.

I really appreciate any and all knowledge of this subject that you can provide! Thanks

[Casey Bishop]

Northwest of St. George, UT and West of Cedar City, UT is some very small towns called Newcastle and Enterprise. My wife is from that area so we find ourselves driving about 35 minutes a few times a month to go out there. In between Newcastle and Enterprise you can see one of these solar projects that your are talking about. Since it's such a small town my wife happens to know of the person who owns the land and leased it to the solar company for the project. Rumor is the land owner is making over half a million a year on this deal.... but that may just be rumor. When I heard this, I started looking into it as well. Land is cheap out there I thought, and I want in! Here is a few things I have learned in my research: The quality of the land is going to be the first thing that must check out. It must be flat, and have no trees or buildings that block the sunlight. Also, the lesser amount of objects that must be moved for them to construct the solar farm is also plus. Next is going to be the area itself, such as the city it is in, the neighbors around it and the activities surrounding the land. They must also make sure that a solar farm is allowed by the ordinances of the city. The biggest thing I remember reading, and big reason why I didn't pursue much further was that 95% of the time, the solar company will find the land they want, check everything out and then engage the land owner about letting them do a solar farm on their property. The chances of you buying a piece of land and calling them up and getting a solar farm is far less likely. Since your family member has already been contacted is a good sign. I think there is a lot of positives in a deal like this. You have a high paying and established "tenant" for your property. You don't have to do any of the building yourself. You don't have to work a farm, or build buildings to make money on the land.... etc. You sign a contract and that land starts making you money, it doesn't get much easier than that. I think the last consideration they make is if there is a need for the power that the solar farm will generate. They won't build a solar farm if there simply isn't enough market to consume (and purchase) what they make.... so there may be a sense of urgency to do the solar farm, or they may do it somewhere else and may not be in position to do another solar farm for a couple of years.