Solar, Biomass Projects Part of Pnm's Future

Solar, Biomass Projects Part of Pnm's Future

Dec 26 - The Santa Fe New Mexican

Public Service Company of New Mexico, which has waded into wind power on a large scale, is about to put its big toe into another pool of alternative energy.

Our state's biggest power company announced this week that it plans to spend more than $1.4 million on solar- and biomass-power projects.

The new efforts are part of PNM's compliance with state renewable- energy statutes, but they're commendable just the same. In the old days, company executives would have dug in their heels and delayed doing anything but business as usual -- strip-mining coal and burning it to boil water for steam generators in the Four Corners area, then sending the electricity along monstrous power lines to its mostly urban customers.

During Ben Montoya's term as PNM president, a certain amount of environmental consciousness was raised -- much of it by Ron Curry, who was called in as a consultant before eventually joining Gov. Bill Richardson's Cabinet as environment secretary. Little by little, the corporation's Edison-era thinking yielded to ecological and political realities -- perhaps to economic ones as well: Wind farms now have established themselves as at least part of PNM's power supply.

Long lines are still a PNM shortcoming, even as it spins more and more electricity from hundreds of windmills out on the llano. And chances are that, unless the solar and biomass generators are small ones that can be duplicated in many locations, towers and cable will be the way from the source to the customer.

However, part of PNM's renewable-energy campaign might open a path for minigeneration: The company is setting aside $200,000 for a program of incentives to individual customers to install solar panels and sell electricity back to the utility.

That's a comparatively piddling amount; same for the $300,000 PNM plans to spend on the 25-kilowatt solar generator -- perhaps enough to power 20 homes -- and the $850,000 feasibility study of a power plant run on debris from forest-thinning projects. Canny consumers and enviros might wonder whether these new projects are merely publicity stunts.

Still, they're steps in the right direction. As technology improves, so might alternative energy in various forms. These projects might advance the state of the art.

Our state's geography makes us an ideal location for alternative- energy pioneering. We applaud PNM for its efforts, tentative in some cases, enthusiastic in others, toward sustainable power.

For far more extensive news on the energy/power visit: http://www.energycentral.com .