How K2 Renew Helped a Developer Secure Prime Land in Georgia
In early 2024, a regional solar developer approached K2 Renew with a familiar but frustrating problem: they had strong utility interest, access to competitive PPA pricing, and internal capital allocation—but they were stuck at square one. They couldn't find viable land fast enough to keep their development pipeline on track.
Their target: Georgia. A fast-growing solar market with high solar irradiance, strong grid demand in key load zones, and policy signals favoring renewable expansion. But the challenge wasn’t opportunity—it was control. Every site they sourced either failed diligence or was slowed by landowner misalignment. Out of every 10 parcels they screened, only one advanced to contract—and even fewer to viable interconnection.
That’s when they turned to K2 Renew. What they needed wasn’t more site volume. They needed site quality, landowner clarity, and a partner who could cut months—not weeks—out of their control cycle.
Land Requirements Tight—And Getting Tighter
Georgia’s land profile varies widely. Flat ag land dominates the south, but it often sits far from transmission. Mountainous northern terrain presents grading and access challenges. And exurban sprawl around Atlanta creates zoning complexity and interconnection strain.
The developer needed at least 300 contiguous acres, within 2 miles of a substation or 115 kV+ line, with minimal slope and outside of floodplain and wetland overlays. But more importantly, they needed landowners who could act quickly—and stay committed.
They had tried using internal origination and land brokers, but most parcels they received failed early diligence: overlapping easements, fractured title, zoning red flags, or outright landowner resistance once lease drafts were presented. The clock was ticking—they had a 36-month offtake window and needed to get in queue within the year.
That’s when K2 Renew stepped in with a targeted proposal: don’t waste time screening 50 new parcels. Let us bring you three pre-vetted sites, each aligned with your grid preferences, legal criteria, and developer risk thresholds. Our promise: viable land with landowners already aligned and educated.
The Site That Fit
K2’s land intelligence team began with a full GIS-driven sweep of transmission-adjacent land across the region, scoring parcels based on slope, wetland risk, road access, and grid proximity. We layered in tax parcel data, zoning maps, and interconnection capacity reports to narrow the search.
After a multi-week screening cycle, we short-listed eight parcels across central and southern Georgia. Each was visited by our land strategy team and evaluated for:
Contiguous acreage
Title integrity
Neighboring land compatibility
Owner willingness
Interconnection route viability
One 410-acre tract in Laurens County stood out. It sat less than a mile from a 115 kV transmission line, was outside protected environmental overlays, and was zoned for agricultural mixed-use with energy development allowed by right.
More importantly, the landowner was already in conversation with our team—and already understood how solar leases worked. We had walked them through option terms, construction timelines, access easements, and co-location of battery storage. They were ready.
Within 14 days, we presented the full package to the developer, including:
Site map overlays
Title review summary
Lease draft pre-approval from landowner
Interconnection overlay map
Environmental desk review memo
From First Call to Signed Lease in 32 Days
The developer reviewed all materials and approved the site within 48 hours. K2 coordinated the lease finalization, hosted the landowner negotiation call, and managed redline review with both legal teams.
Because the landowner had already been educated—on lease terms, payment triggers, diligence phases, and the broader energy transition—they didn’t flinch at questions that normally cause delays.
They didn’t demand payment on day one—they understood option structure
They didn’t redline standard access easements—they’d seen examples in our materials
They didn’t panic when we mentioned interconnection studies—they asked for timelines
We executed the lease 32 days after the initial partner brief. For context, the developer’s internal average time-to-control before K2 was 96 days—and that included sites that later failed.
Here’s what they saved:
$3,200 in legal fees (reduced redlines and revisions)
$4,500 in screening costs (no wetlands, slope, or zoning consultants needed)
2 months of staff time (legal, origination, GIS, executive review)
And because the site met interconnection viability thresholds, they were able to submit for queue study within 60 days of lease execution—a move that advanced their portfolio timeline by a full quarter.
The Project Today—And What Comes Next
That site in Laurens County is now a 60 MWdc solar + 20 MW/80 MWh storage project entering design and permitting. The landowner has since referred two adjacent landowners, and K2 is currently in active negotiation to expand the control zone to over 700 acres.
Because of that initial lease and the process around it, the developer now considers K2 their preferred partner for land origination across three Southeast markets. We’re currently working together on additional site pushes in Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas.
But the outcome isn’t just measured in acres controlled. It’s measured in cost per viable MW, speed to interconnection, and friction avoided. That’s what matters to partners who need throughput and certainty in an unpredictable development environment.
Request a Custom Project Analysis
You don’t need more land. You need the right land—with the right landowner, at the right time, and under the right terms. That’s what K2 delivers.
We don’t mass-source. We precision-source, educate, and deliver. If you're spending too much to get to site control—or if you’re tired of land that looks good on a map but falls apart on contact—it’s time to try a better model.
Want to see how we’d approach land strategy for your next build?
Request a Custom Project Analysis. We’ll review your criteria, apply our screening and education model, and show you what high-conversion, low-friction site control looks like—before you spend another dollar on rework.
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