Aug 08 - Albuquerque Journal

New Mexico is poised to move into the top five states in national wind energy rankings with the addition of its fifth major wind ranch.

Houston-based Superior Renewable Energy is building a 90- megawatt wind ranch near Santa Rosa in Guadalupe County.

The Argonne Mesa Wind Ranch will be the state's first commercial wind ranch to produce power specifically for an out-of-state utility. Arizona Public Service has signed a 20-year contract with Superior to buy the power, Superior CEO John Calaway told the Journal in an interview.

New Mexico already has four wind ranches that can produce a total of 407 megawatts of electricity. At that level, New Mexico was ranked sixth in the nation in terms of installed wind energy, according to a report released last month by the American Wind Energy Association in Washington, D.C.

Argonne Mesa will bring the total up to 497 megawatts, which would put New Mexico ahead of Oklahoma, which has 475 megawatts of wind energy. The report ranked Texas No. 1, with 2,370 megawatts from wind. California, which had led the wind rankings for many years, was second with 2,323 MW, Iowa third with 836 MW, and Minnesota was fourth with 756 MW.

Argonne Mesa will consist of 90 one-megawatt Mitsubishi wind turbines spread out on 10,000 acres of private land just north of Pastura, a village about 17 miles southwest of Santa Rosa.

About 75 workers have been involved during the ranch's construction, which is nearly over, Calaway said. The wind ranch should be in operation by late November or early December. That will allow Superior and partners Babcock & Brown of Australia to take advantage of a 1.8 cent federal tax credit, plus a 1 cent state tax credit, for each kilowatthour of electricity produced.

Calaway declined to give specifics but said landowners would receive a percentage of the revenues from wind energy produced by turbines located on their land. Guadalupe County and the local school district will also get "millions" of dollars in tax revenue over the projected 20-year life of the wind ranch, Calaway said.

The state's existing wind operations sell power to utilities that primarily supply customers in New Mexico.

Under state law, utilities must derive 5 percent of their power from renewable sources; that demand will rise to 10 percent by 2011.

Public Service Company of New Mexico buys power from the 204- megawatt New Mexico Wind Energy Center near Fort Sumner. Minneapolis- based Xcel Energy, which supplies customers in eastern New Mexico, buys power from the 80-megawatt Caprock wind ranch near Tucumcari and the 120-megawatt San Juan Mesa wind ranch at Elida. El Paso Electric, which supplies customers in southern New Mexico, buys wind power from PNM.

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