Pub. 4 2014 Issue 1

9 MINING FOCUS • Escalante Valley (6,533 acres in Iron County that could generate 725 megawatts) • Milford Flats (6,252 acres in Beaver County that could generate 695 megawatts • Wah Wah Valley (5,873 acres in Beaver County that could generate 653 megawatts) The total proposed acreage is 18,658 acres and could potentially generate as much as 2,073 megawatts. All of this seems to add up to a glowing picture of the future, but it is a picture that will require mining. The materials that are required to build this solar infrastructure have to be mined. Copper, coal, molybdenum, and phosphate rock just to name a few. And how does real estate come into play? Solar and wind energy farms require land. It’s true that much of that land, in the west, may be public lands, but some of it will be on private land. Historically, a great place to invest your money is in land. Large swaths of land can be used for many different purposes, such as growing timber or offering private hunting reserves. But they also can be used to produce energy. For example, Ted Turner is the largest private landowner in the U.S., and has the largest private herd of buffalo in the world (about 50,000 animals). But his lands also include solar power generation. The good news is that you don’t have to be Ted Turner to invest in solar and wind energy farms. In fact, you can buy an energy-producing plot of land. The idea is simple. A company buys land in an area with ample sunlight, then builds a solar PV system on the land and connects it to the grid. The land is divided into small plots, such as 40 feet by 40 feet. The investor who buys one or more plots from the company owns the land and the part of the PV system that is on the land. This is an idea that is gaining increasing traction for obvious reasons: you don’t have to put the equipment on your house or in your yard, you get a price break because the equipment costs less than it would if you specifically bought it to install at your home, and you can earn energy credits. Solving our energy demand challenges is going to take a healthy dose of creativity and a true “all-of-the-above” approach. By working with landowners and miner s, however, there’s no reason why that future can’t be a good one. It’ll be interesting getting there.  Solar and wind energy farms require land. It’s true that much of that land, in the west, may be public lands, but some of it will be on private land . Supplying technical expertise to Utah’s mining industry for over 100 years. Contact us for exciting and rewarding career opportunities. www.mining.utah.edu mining-info@lists.utah.edu EDUCATION RESEARCH INDUSTRY SUPPORT 135 South 1460 East Room 313 WBB Salt Lake City, UT 84112 801-585-5176