The state's four major utilities aim to have electricity running by 2012.
El Paso Electric, Xcel Energy, Public Service Co. of New Mexico and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association issued a request for proposals from solar developers for the construction of a solar thermal facility.
According to the RFP, the facility must be located in New Mexico and it must use parabolic trough technology.
The project also needs to provide electricity by 2012 and thermal energy storage is encouraged.
The utilities said the facility must be able to deliver between 211,000 megwatt hours and 375,000 MWh per year.
"Each of the utilities has shown tremendous leadership by coming together as partners for renewable energy," said Pat Vincent, president of utilities at Public Service Co. of New Mexico.
"The four of us directly or indirectly provide electricity to almost every customer in the state."
According to the group, the RFP follows a feasibility study commissioned by the utilities last year.
The study, performed by the Electric Power Research Institute, found that the most feasible solar technology currently available for a large-scale New Mexico plant is parabolic trough, also known as solar thermal.
Solar thermal uses a series of trough-shaped mirrors to focus sunlight onto an oil-filled tube, using the hot oil to generate steam, which is then used to turn a generator to produce electricity.
When combined with thermal energy storage, this solar technology is capable of generating electricity at night as well as during cloudy periods.
Last month Southern California Edison signed a deal with eSolar for 245 MW of solar thermal power, which is expected to begin delivering energy in 2011 (see SCE brings more solar thermal to California).
Similar to California law, New Mexico's Public Regulation Commission issued a mandate which requires utilities to derive at least 20 percent of their electricity from renewable energy by 2020, with 20 percent of their renewable portfolio coming from solar by 2011.
California requires utilities to get 20 percent of their electricity from renewables by 2010.
If the group selects a project from the RFP process, the utility partners said they expect to have a contract negotiated by the end of this year and energy from the project serving New Mexico customers by the end of 2011, pending regulatory approvals.
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Solar Power Projects
While solar projects are getting slated for the deserts of California and Arizona, New Mexico’s four largest utilities have done a public shout out to bring in a very large solar project to their state. El Paso Electric, Public Service Company of New Mexico, Xcel Energy and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association have issued a request for proposal for a solar power project that could deliver up to 375,000 megawatt-hours annually and power up to 52,000 homes.
Nuclear Energy
Nuclear would become much more practical, safe, and cost-effective, and it could last hundreds of years longer if we could perfect breeder reactors. These reprocess the waste into more fuel for further nuclear reactions, so they dramatically reduce the waste that needs to be stored and also stretch the limited supply of uranium much farther. In addition, they can allow the use of thorium, which is more abundant than uranium.
It is true that nuclear is subsidized by the public, but as energy costs rise all around, it becomes more cost-effective, especially as newer approaches are perfected as noted above. France successfully generates more than half of its electricity from nuclear, so it is clearly feasible.
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