Western Natural Resources

Western Natural Resources is interested in buying your Kern County Land. They have offered $20,000 with a 60 day escrow period. Western Natural Resources is an Oklahoma-based gas and oil company that is branching into solar energy in partnership with Blue Sky Energy. Blue Sky Energy is listed as another oil and gas company headquartered in San Antonio Texas, however, the website doesn't provide more information. Upon more digging, I found a company profile detailing them as a small company of 1-5 employees with a revenue of less than $5 million a year. 🤔

Blue Sky Energy

Blue Sky Energy is a relatively small company for a project of this scale with such minimal internet presence. I went down a rabbit hole and found that they share the same mailing/street address as a company called Terra-Gen (which uses the same exact logo as Western Natural Resources). Terra-Gen's company profile says it has 50 employees with a revenue of $77 million. This is the true company behind this large-scale project.

Humboldt Wind LLC

From what I can tell, this large parent company uses smaller LLC's for each project. This is likely strategic because, of course, larger companies can afford more money. I found a previous project they proposed under the name "Humboldt Wind LLC" on the Humbolt County government website. It's the same address, same logo, but the name of the company gives a more *we are one of you guys* vibe.

In the upper left hand corner of the map that Western Natural Resources sent there is the project name: EdSan3 Solar Project. I Googled that and came up with a website from the company that will be installing the project detailing the scale.

Edwards Airforce Base

The initial part of this project was done on the Edwards Airforce base and unveiled in February of this year.

As far as land value goes, the lots on the market of similar size, range from $8,500 - $927,000 with most of them being around $24,000. Similar properties that sold in the last 6 months, on the market (meaning not in a private sale) have gone for $5,000 to $20,000

Next Step: I would like to go out to the property and get my eyes on how much of the nearby land has solar or wind turbines on it. I also am curious about where your land falls in the scope of their project - do they need your land to access other lots? This would make it more valuable. I would also like to reach out to nearby landowners and discuss their opinions on the project and find out if they are being pursued by Western Natural Resources and how much they are being offered.

Currently, Google Earth shows snake-like rows of wind turbines and a small rectangular solar field. Based on the map they provided it looks like they are hoping to cover pretty much everything with solar. It more common for people to lease rights to their land (like you would with land that has oil) than it is to straight out sell it. It's worth noting, this is not a small company. If you go to their website you can see all the wind/solar/energy storage projects they have going on.