Solar prices continue to fall

The future might be brighter for eastern New Mexico, where solar energy is concerned as solar technology prices continue falling and the renewable energy tax credit remains.

The Solar Energy Industries Association reports that solar photovoltaic (PV) prices have fallen by 19 percent over the last year and by 62 percent over the last five years.

According to SEIA, there are 112 solar companies in New Mexico with 634 megawatts installed around the state, 253 megawatts in 2016 alone. The organization is predicting a growth of another 1,747 megawatts in the state over the next five years.

But solar has been a little slow to come to the eastern side of the state over the years, despite the area’s description by industry officials as a prime climate for the energy mix.

“New Mexico’s abundant sunshine and consumer desire for affordable, reliable electricity makes solar a no brainer there,” said Sean Gallagher, SEIA vice president of state affairs. “While New Mexico has introduced smart policies that can foster increased access to this clean, cost-competitive source of electricity, investor-owned utilities in the state have sought to slow the growth of the solar market through unjust rate proposals that hinder customers’ ability to go solar and slow the growth of investment.”

However, local utilities are slowly bringing the technology into their mix, and officials say as long as solar remains practical for their consumers, they will continue to bring it on board.

Xcel Energy spokesman Wes Reeves said previously, solar was not coming to eastern New Mexico because of high prices and lack of transmission to carry the power out of the state, but both of those factors have been remedied now.

“We have more pathways now for moving renewable energy out (of state), so that’s not such a problem anymore,” he said, adding that Xcel is working on a $400 million transmission project that will run from the company’s TUCO Substation north of Abernathy, Texas, to Hobbs then to Carlsbad and then branch out south in a couple of different directions.

Reeves said his company contracted with NextEra Energy Resources for a 70-megawatt facility that came online last year in Chaves County, and the company has five 10-megawatt facilities in Lea and Eddy counties.

“Solar has rapidly decreased in cost to the point that we were able to bring that (Roswell) facility on for the same price as a natural gas facility,” he said. “We do not have any active projects or contracts with solar, but because the projects are coming so much more cheaply than they used to, we are keeping our eyes open. We are bringing them on for economics, not because we have to. If we find good deals, and it makes sense for the customers, for sure we’re going to look at it.”

Lance Adkins, general manager of Farmers Electric Co-op in Clovis said solar currently costs less than half of what it did three years ago.

“You have to weigh the costs to businesses if you go too far too fast, Adkins said. “I think the majority of our membership is ready to embrace renewable technology to the extent that there’s not a significant premium or higher cost attached to it.”

In November 2016, Farmers whole sale supplier, Western Farmers Electric Co-op, contracted with Duke Energy for a 25-megawatt solar project south of Tucumcari, and they are now considering a five-megawatt solar facility near Lovington.

“We’ve been looking at solar really for the last 15 or 16 years and in 2003, we started adding renewable resources to our generation mix,” said Brian Hobbs, WFEC vice president of legal and corporate services. “We’ve looked at solar every year since, but it didn’t make sense economically until recently.”

WFEC has four New Mexico members: Farmers Electric Cooperative in Clovis, Roosevelt County Electric Cooperative in Portales, Lea County Electric Cooperative in Lovington and Central Valley Electric Cooperative in Artesia.

The cooperative has about 80 megawatts of wind in eastern New Mexico currently with 30 of that coming online this summer in Lea County. Almost 20 megawatts is north of Clovis near Grady.

“As our load grows and we need additional resources,” Hobbs said, “we will continue to look at all options, including solar.”