May 22 - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Rosalie Rayburn Albuquerque Journal, N.M.

Public Service Company of New Mexico's new solar buyback program has proved more popular than the company expected.

Within three months of launching the program on March 1, PNM is more than halfway toward meeting the goal it set for the first year.

PNM pays customers with grid-tied solar electric generating systems 13 cents for each kilowatt-hour of power they produce.

Since the launch date, 55 customers have applied to have their solar systems connected to the grid so they can participate in the program, said PNM spokesman Jeff Buell.

Of those, 32 customers have new solar systems. And 23 customers were previously participating in PNM's net metering program, which credits customers at the regular rate of 8.03 cents per kilowatt-hour for surplus power they fed onto the grid.

Grid-tied solar customers can now benefit from both programs.

The 55 solar systems are capable of generating a total of 106 kilowatts of power. PNM's goal for the solar buyback program was 171 kilowatts in the first year, Buell said.

Before the program started, PNM typically connected about 12 customer solar systems annually.

Payments from PNM help reduce the time it takes customers to pay off the systems. Solar photovoltaic systems cost on average about $10,000 per watt, installed.

PNM uses the renewable energy certificates associated with the solar power to comply with a state law that requires utilities to derive 5 percent of their energy from renewable sources this year. That requirement will increase to 10 percent by 2011.