NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Lawmakers created a special program in 2021 to help more New Mexicans voluntarily support solar projects—without needing panels on their homes or apartments. Now, nearly five years later, dozens of those community solar farms are finally coming online.

As of September, the first few solar farms connected to the New Mexico Community Solar Act have been going live, with almost 50 new community solar farms going up next year for El Paso Electric, Xcel Energy, and PNM customers.

Alaric Babej, Director of Customer Energy Solutions for PNM, said, “We are currently putting on the first bill credits on subscriber bills right now, so there are subscribers to community solar that are already receiving credits from PNM. So it’s a really exciting time to be in the industry.”

He said PNM is the first utility in the state to get community solar farms interconnected under the new program. “Community Solar is unique because you don’t have to actually put panels on your house. You’re able to get the benefits of participating in the solar energy industry without directly installing it,” Babej said. “And so the goal of the program is to open up those benefits to customers that couldn’t install traditional solar. So, for example, folks that live in apartment buildings, or maybe they’re renters.”

To take part, customers must contact a subscription management company. The state has vetted and approved five such companies. Ratepayers enroll and are set up with a subscription fee tailored to their usage patterns, based on previous yearly electricity use.

Credits appear on the utility bill before the subscriber pays their subscription fee. For income-qualified users, the credit can be anywhere from 20–30 percent of the subscription fee.

For example, if an income-qualified family typically pays $100 on their monthly electricity bill and then pays a $50 subscription fee, the credit could be around $70 (depending on the subscription management company). That would result in a net, monthly savings of $20.

The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission said that this discount will always result in net savings, and income-qualified subscribers may save up to three times more than non-income-qualified participants.

Income-qualified subscribers must make at or below 80% of the area’s median income.

Christian Casillas, Executive Director of the Coalition of Sustainable Communities New Mexico, said the state has tasked the coalition with outreach and education. The group is hosting in-person and online seminars about the program and how to enroll.

“Just as an example, if you’re living in Bernalillo County and you’re a household of two people, your income would need to be below $58,000 a year,” Casillas explained. “And if you qualify for that, then you should expect to see something like 15% to 28% savings in your electricity costs over the course of the year. And if you are not an income-qualified household, you should expect to see something like six to 7% savings over the course of the year.”

Casillas said the state hopes this first phase of solar farms will reach as many as 35,000 households—or roughly 10 percent of the state’s low-income population who would qualify. 

The program is open to more than income-qualified residents. Homeowners, businesses, schools, churches, and nonprofits can also participate.

Participants don’t have to live near the solar farm they are subscribed to. 

Troy McGee, founder of WattsUp New Mexico, a company helping connect customers to the state-endorsed program, said there are multiple reasons beyond savings to get involved. He noted that participating helps the state transition to renewable energy, and that developers have pledged 50% of farm capacity (and are required by statute to reserve at least 30%) for income-qualified ratepayers. “It’s the easiest way to save on electricity, you’re not switching providers. It’s an easy way to help other income-qualified homes. And it makes a ton of local jobs,” said McGee.

He added that there’s no risk of paying more in fees, subscriptions can be adjusted as household energy needs change, and there’s no cancellation fee.

McGee said building trust is essential in the communities he serves.

“There’s been a lot of scammy sales in the solar industry, so there’s a lack of trust, but I think when people know that we’re local and they talk with us, they quickly begin to trust us,” he said.

So far, the Public Regulation Commission said three community solar farms are live, 10 are expected to be ready by the end of the year, and approximately 47 more are anticipated by the end of 2026.

According to the Coalition, each five-megawatt farm creates a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over the course of the year that would be equivalent to removing about 1000 gasoline-powered vehicles. 

Cities getting one or more community solar farms interconnected with PNM:

• Alamogordo – 2
• Albuquerque – 1 
• Belen – 2
• Clayton – 1
• Deming – 6
• Las Vegas – 1
• Lordsburg – 3
• Los Lunas – 4 
• Rio Communities – 1 
• Rio Rancho – 1
• Santa Fe – 1 
• Silver City – 2 
• Tularosa – 5 

Cities getting one or more community solar farms interconnected with El Paso Electric:

• Chaparral – 1
• Las Cruces – 3 
• Salem – 1
• Vado – 1

Cities getting one or more community solar farms interconnected with Southwestern Public Service Company:

• Carlsbad – 1
• Clovis – 4 
• Hobbs – 1 
• Portales – 2 
• Roswell – 3

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A new conservation agreement will preserve land with breathtaking desert vistas that inspired the work of 20th century painter Georgia O’Keeffe and ensure visitors access to an adjacent educational retreat, several partners to the pact announced Tuesday.

Initial phases of the plan establish a conservation easement across about 10 square miles (26 square kilometers) of land, owned by a charitable arm of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), on the outskirts of the village of Abiquiu.

That easement stretches across reservoir waterfront and native grasslands to the doorstep of a remote home owned by O’Keeffe’s estate, a few miles from her larger home and studio in Abiquiu. Both homes are outside the conservation area and owned and managed separately by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe.

The view from the rangeland should be familiar to even casual O’Keeffe afficionados — including desert washes, sandstone bluffs and the distant mountain silhouette of Cerro Pedernal.

“The stark colorful geology, the verdant grasslands going right down to the Chama River and Abiquiu lake — all that just makes it such a multifaceted place with tremendous conservation value,” said Jonathan Hayden, executive director of the New Mexico Land Conservancy that helped broker the conservation plan and will oversee easements.

Hayden said the voluntary plan guards against the potential encroachment of modern development that might subdivide and transform the property, though there are not any imminent proposals.

Land within an initial easement has been the backdrop to movie sets for decades, including a recreation of wartime Los Alamos in the hit 2024 film “Oppenheimer, ” on a temporary movie set that still stands.

The conservation agreement guarantees some continued access for film productions, as well as preserving traditional winter grazing for farmers who usher small herds down from the mountains as snow arrives.

The state of New Mexico is substantially underwriting the initiative though a trust created by state lawmakers in 2023.

An approved $920,000 state award is being set aside for easement surveys, transaction costs and a financial nest-egg that the Presbyterian Church Foundation will use — while retaining property ownership — to support programming at the adjacent Ghost Ranch Education & Retreat Center and its use of the conservation area.

The center attracts about 10,000 visitors a year to overnight spiritual, artistic and literary retreats for people of all faiths, with twice as many day visitors, said center CEO David Evans.

Two initial phases of the conservation plan are part of a broader plan to protect more than 30 square miles (78 square kilometers) of the area through conservation easements and public land transfers, with the support of at least one wildlife foundation. That would extend protections to the banks of the Chama River and preserve additional wildlife habitat.

Many Native American communities trace their ancestry to the area in northern New Mexico where O’Keeffe settled and explored the landscape in her work.

NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – With years of well-documented problems for the New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families Department, New Mexico is making its first watchdog agency to monitor the department, and that office is finally taking shape. 

“It’s very much needed right now, and I think that New Mexico is making some good moves and ways to look out for child well-being in this state,” said Rep. Michelle Paulene Abeyta (D-To’hajilee). 

It’s an effort to keep a closer eye on continued problems in New Mexico’s Children, Youth and Families Department, a department long criticized for failing to protect children. Under the control of the New Mexico Attorney General, the “Office of the Child Advocate” is expected to open next year, and the committee tasked with picking that leader is well underway in its work. A bipartisan group of lawmakers backed House Bill 5, creating New Mexico’s “Office of the Child Advocate,” and a handful of candidates vying to lead that office have already been interviewed.  

“The candidate pool was very impressive, almost every candidate met the minimum qualifications of having the social work background, a law background, or a psychology background, and combined with that, education was years of experience,” said Rep. Abeyta. 

A To’hajiilee democrat, Rep. Michelle Paulene Abeyta, is part of the seven-member committee doing the interviews. The national search is now down to eight candidates.  

“The Office of the Child Advocate will be focused on complaints that we’ve all been hearing about in the media, most recently, children sleeping in CYFD offices will be a huge one, and then also looking at what we’re doing to help support families with family reunification,” said Abeyta. 

The Office of the Child Advocate exists within the New Mexico Department of Justice, which right now said they’ve been taking on an administrative role. 

“We as you know have broad statutory authority in the state of New Mexico and for the Child Advocate to be sending us investigations, and recommendations, and tips and things of that nature, it makes sense for our office to tackle since we do have a broad range of statutory obligations,” said Lauren Rodriguez, Chief of Staff for the New Mexico Department of Justice. 

The interview team is hoping to narrow down the pool of candidates down from eight before sending their suggestions to the governor, who will have the ultimate say in who leads the “office.” The governor is expected to make that pick by January.