Solar developers see Arizona as a hotbed for future solar facilities as new technologies emerge and the solar race picks up in the desert.
Arizona’s solar boom is creating a lot of interest from solar developers buying 200-plus acres to smaller investors purchasing 20- to 40-acre parcels. According to Multiple Listing Service data, the number of West Valley acres sold in the first nine months of 2016 doubled the number of acres sold in all of 2015.
In the West Valley, approximately $7 billion worth of solar power plants have been constructed and are currently operating on approximately 15,000 acres.
Due to the recent influx of buyers, the availability of viable West Valley land, especially larger parcels (200+ acres), is limited due to either solar companies or big investors holding onto them for future expansions.
In 2017 and beyond, Kuldip Verma, founder and CEO of Vermaland, the largest holders of 50- to 1,200-acre land parcels in Metro Phoenix, says, “We will see a surge in development in the West Valley, and that is where we believe the path of growth is headed, based on the largest amount of available private land.”
