Kit Carson joins team to grow solar industry in northern New Mexico
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| Solar panels are a familiar sight on off-grid homes in northern New Mexico. Kit Carson Electric Cooperative hopes its solar partnership will increase the use of solar power by grid-connected residences and businesses. (Photo courtesy of NREL) |
At the North American Energy Summit, held in April in Albuquerque, N.M., four companies announced a public-private partnership that could turn the state's abundant sunshine into renewable energy and turn renewable energy into economic development.
Kit Carson Electric Cooperative and SolarPort engineering group, both of Taos, N.M., signed an agreement with PV manufacturer Spire Corporation and New Energy Capital investment firm to locally produce solar modules and install arrays in northern New Mexico's rural communities.
The project highlights the potential of renewable energy to bring jobs and revenue to rural areas. "This is going to be a local product, built and installed by local employees, putting energy onto the local grid to sell to local markets," said Kit Carson CEO Luis Reyes.
Under the agreement, Spire Corporation will build a Taos facility to assemble solar panels. Kit Carson and SolarPort will install the panels and provide maintenance, and Kit Carson will purchase the electricity from the system owners. New Energy Capital is assisting with financing arrangements for the project and helping the companies do due diligence for the factory construction. The power purchasing agreement is currently being negotiated.
Project partners answer governor's call to make state clean energy center
Several months in the making, the project came together relatively quickly because of the experience of the participants. "Kit Carson has focused on renewable energy activities for the last five years," said Reyes. "We're always on the lookout for the right partners and the right opportunity."
Kit Carson chose its partners wisely. Spire Corporation recently developed a similar project, Spire Solar Chicago, a solar module assembly plant located in Chicago, in collaboration with the city, the local electric utility, ComEd, and the state of Illinois.
SolarPort uses solar power generation and distribution, co-located with energy-efficient greenhouses, to create new jobs, involve local entrepreneurs and create education and commerce opportunities making, selling and using solar electricity within the community.
Headed by former U.S. Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Dan Reicher, New Energy Capital finances, owns and operates renewable energy and distributed generation projects.
Governor Bill Richardson's call to make New Mexico the "clean energy state" helped to create the opportunity. SolarPort Manager and Co-Founder Joel Goldblatt summed up the moment in a statement to the press. "We are at the right place, at the right time for solar energy in New Mexico."
Utility puts marketing experience to work for solar project
The project's goal is to deploy 1.5 MW of solar panels in three years. Other New Mexico utilities may buy some of that power to fulfill the state's renewable portfolio standard of 10 percent energy from renewable sources by 2014.
As a cooperative, Kit Carson is not subject to the state standard, but Reyes believes there will be a market for local renewable product in the Taos Valley. "We've done a lot of grassroots work, polling consumers and holding town meetings. The three main issues we hear are renewables, reliability and rates," he said. "For the people interested in renewables, that is their No. 1 concern."
Public education is the key to expanding that interest, the CEO continued. "Kit Carson offers its members a green power option through TriState [Generation and Transmission Association], our wholesaler. There are only 350 subscribers right now out of 25,000 members, but every time there is a local news story about it, we gain 10 or 20 customers," Reyes noted.
Supporting Reyes's view, participants included in the agreement the creation of an education, public awareness and marketing campaign to increase the use of solar energy. PowerTaos! will seek to involve local, state and Federal agencies, local businesses, non-profit organizations, national laboratories and the utility customers of northern New Mexico.
Kit Carson, SolarPort and the state department of energy are collaborating on a budget and a print and radio campaign. One unique form of outreach will involve placing "tracker boards" in communities with solar arrays to show how much energy the panels are generating. A phone bank will be established to continue polling, answer customers' questions about solar energy and encourage support of renewable energy, either through green power subscriptions or installing solar panels.
Reyes is confident that the marketing experience the utility gained running propane and Internet businesses will serve the solar project well. "We learned how to compete successfully in a private marketplace," he explained. "The same rules apply to positioning renewables. The competition is fossil fuels, and people need to know the pros and cons to make an informed decision."
Jobs, local involvement will win customer support for renewable energy
Not that Kit Carson members are completely unfamiliar with solar energy. "The level of social awareness and the lifestyle here encourage people to respect and appreciate the environment," Reyes observed. "And our members are used to seeing solar panels on off-grid homes around the valley. What the solar project aims to do is make the technology available and improve the pricing so that it becomes feasible to integrate solar into downtown Taos."
Incentives will be necessary to accomplish that feat, Reyes acknowledged. In addition to buying solar power back from PV owners, Kit Carson plans to offer some sort of installation incentive. The partnership is also looking into state and Federal incentives. "New energy technology cannot get off the ground without some kind of subsidy. Wind got it and now in some places, the cost is close to competitive with fossil fuels," he pointed out. "In fact, if you read history, you'll learn that coal once received Federal support."
One reason governments subsidize industries is to create jobs, and solar has great potential in that department. Statistics compiled by SolarPort indicate that photovoltaic production creates eight times more jobs per megawatt/hour than coal or gas and three times more jobs than wind or biomass. Participants expect the New Mexico project to create initially about 30 jobs in solar panel assembly, installation and related work. The prospects for additional jobs are significant as state utilities buy increasing amounts of renewable energy to comply with the RPS and to earn the extra credit the new law provides for solar power.
In a region that relies heavily on tourism and agriculture, the prospect of job growth will no doubt help to build the case for renewable energy. In Reyes's opinion, however, local generation may be the strongest marketing tool for the project. "It's hard to sell people renewable energy that's coming from Salt Lake City. They don't know what the source is," he asserted. "But those solar panels give them something to believe in—clean energy, economic development. They will pay for something they can see."
