New Mexico Governor Plans Solar Energy Project, Tax Force
Albuquerque Journal, N.M. --Feb. 26--ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
Feb. 26--ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Gov. Bill Richardson plans to use $3 million in capital outlay funds he controls as seed money for work on a project that would use New Mexico's abundant sunshine to generate electricity on a commercial scale.
The goal will be to attract $20 million to build one or more solar energy
plants somewhere in the state, he said.
The governor plans to establish a solar energy task force to identify a site
for a commercial solar project by the end of 2004, said Craig O'Hare, the
governor's special assistant for renewable energy at the state Department of
Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources.
The governor has dedicated himself to bringing solar energy to commercial
viability in New Mexico the way wind energy is being used now, O'Hare said.
The task force will include representatives from Sandia National
Laboratories, the State Investment Council, the state Energy, Minerals and
Natural Resources Department and utilities such as Public Service Company of New
Mexico.
Estimates from the American Wind Association, which monitors wind power
development, show the cost of producing electricity from wind is now about 5
cents per kilowatt-hour, or about one-fifth what it cost in the mid-1980s. In
addition, wind producers enjoy a 1.8 cents per kilowatt-hour federal tax credit
and a 1 cent per kilowatt-hour state tax credit.
The association estimates electricity from coal-fueled plants costs between
4.8 cents and 5.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. Electricity produced by solar
generating plants built in California in the early 1980s cost about 25 cents per
kilowatt-hour. Since then, technological advances have helped bring down
the cost of solar power to between 8 cents and 11 cents per kilowatt-hour.
One solar expert estimates that a 100-megawatt solar plant could be built for
about $250"million today.
O'Hare said the task force will probably focus on the potential use of two
solar technologies developed by Sandia labs: Concentrating dish technology,
which uses a device similar to a TV dish antenna to concentrate heat from the
sun's rays and beam it at a hydrogen gas generator.
Solar power tower technology, which uses a field of movable mirrors to track
the sun and focus its rays on a tower-mounted receiver. The heat creates steam
to turn a turbine.
Sandia scientists have been conducting solar power research for 30 years,
funded in large part by grants from the Department of Energy.
New Mexico regulators also took a step toward increasing the use of
alternative energy last year by approving a rule for utilities here to generate
10 percent of the electricity they use for their retail customers from renewable
sources such as solar, wind, biomass and geothermal by 2011.
New Mexico's renewable rule doesn't require a specific percentage of
renewable energy from a particular source, but it provides incentives. Under the
rule, 1 kilowatt-hour of geothermal and biomass energy will count as 2
kilowatt-hours in the utilities' goal toward buying 10 percent renewable energy.
One kilowatt-hour of solar energy will count as 3 kilowatt-hours. Wind is on a
1-to-1 ratio.
And the Public Regulation Commission also granted a "green tariff"
to Public Service Company of New Mexico that allows it to charge a little more
money for power generated by wind turbines.
Such a tariff would likely be considered by regulators for other energy
sources as well.