The Southwest desert's real estate boom

From California to Arizona, demand for sites for solar power projects has ignited a land grab.
...A solar land rush is rolling across the desert Southwest. Goldman Sachs, utilities PG&E and FPL, Silicon Valley startups, Israeli and German solar firms, Chevron, speculators - all are scrambling to lock up hundreds of thousands of acres of long-worthless land now coveted as sites for solar power plants.

Climateer Investing: Goldman Sachs and the Solar Land Rush (FSLR; GS)

A modern-day land rush is under way in the deserts of Arizona and the Southwest as public utilities and speculators vie for vast tracts of public and private land on which to build massive solar-power plants.
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Potential buyers include utilities such as Sempra Energy and PG&E; investment banker Goldman Sachs; Spanish, Israeli and German solar firms; and speculators.

lar Projects create demand for desert land | DMSolar Blog