Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office is seeking applicants to fill at least two jobs for the newly created “Office of Housing,” a small group of executive branch officials tasked with coordinating various statewide housing programs. 

Creating a statewide housing office under the governor’s control was one of Lujan Grisham’s main priorities during the 2024 30-day legislative session. Lawmakers ultimately stymied her request to create a formal office with expanded authority, but she did find $2 million to fund new positions to work in her office on the issue over the next two years. 

The job openings include a new “director of statewide homelessness initiatives,” who  would be responsible for a “coordinated and strategic response” to the growing unhoused population across the state, according to a news release from the governor’s office. The job would pay between $75,000 and $130,000. 

The statewide housing office is also hiring at least one more person,creating a general job listing for those “with experience in housing development, programs, policy, regulatory frameworks, data and demographics,” according to the governor’s office.. That job would pay between $50,000 and $120,000. 

The governor staffing up a state housing office comes after the Legislature made a historic one-time investment to try and spark home building across New Mexico.

New state money includes a $125 million loan program for affordable housing infrastructure and workforce housing development, a $50 million payment for the New Mexico Affordable Housing Trust Fund and $20 million for initiatives aimed at homelessness. 

New statewide housing report finds problems linger with affordability, homelessness, quality

The housing office is built to improve availability and affordability of homes across the state..The governor’s office is seeking “talented and innovative thinkers” to come up with new ideas and to build a strategic approach, according to the release. 

“The housing landscape has changed monumentally in the last few years, and it’s time for new models and new levels of coordination,” said Daniel Werwath, whom the governor hired in January to lead the office, in the news release. “The Governor is assembling an experienced team with broad expertise to develop innovative ways to combat the unprecedented housing crisis facing New Mexico.” 

Lujan Grisham asked the Legislature to sanction her push for an Office of Housing and grant it new authority, including putting the office’s new director on the board of the New Mexico 

Mortgage Finance Authority, which recently rebranded as Housing New Mexico. She made the rare move of advocating for the bill in person in front of a legislative committee. 

A bill the governor supported faced pushback from some lawmakers who thought a new office could be redundant or get in the way of existing state entities, like Housing New Mexico. Housing New Mexico officials also lobbied against Lujan Grisham’s proposal.

Dive Brief:

• Ebon Solar plans to build a $942 million solar cell manufacturing factory in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Delaware-based company said in an Aug. 7 press release.
• The facility will span 834,000 square feet, according to the release. The investment will create at least 911 jobs including operators, technicians and engineers with salaries ranging between $30,870 and $129,960, according to city documents.
• Ebon Solar is a subsidiary of Singapore-based chipmaker, Ebang International. The company formed Ebon in June 2021, and the investment aims to develop beginning-to-end advanced manufacturing of solar cells in the U.S.

Dive Insight:

Ebang purchased 100 acres through its subsidiary with the goal to explore new opportunities and diversify its product to strengthen shareholder value, according to Ebang’s Aug. 8 financial filing.

Construction of the solar cell plant will take place in two phases and create approximately 2,665 construction jobs, according to city filings.  The first phase is estimated to contain 1 gigawatt yearly production capacity. Phase two is anticipated to add 3.5 GW of annual production capacity.

Ebon Solar’s facility will be located in the Mesa del Sol industrial development area, according to the release. Mesa del Sol is a master-planned commercial, industrial and residential community in the Albuquerque metropolitan area, according to the Mesa del Sol website. The community is also five minutes from the Albuquerque International Sunport.

One of the goals for the community is environmental sustainability and renewable energy generation. To achieve this, developers use geodesign, which is a collaboration among designers, planners, geographers and civil engineers to find solutions for issues like climate change.

Another goal is to create more employment opportunities, by building data centers, tech campuses and warehouses in addition to manufacturing facilities, according to the website.

“The choice of Albuquerque for our investment aligns with our commitment to sustainable innovation, and New Mexico offers abundant solar resources, favorable renewable energy policies, and a dedicated, skilled workforce,” Ebon Solar CEO Judy Cai said in a statement. 

Ebon Solar is the second solar manufacturer with plans to establish a facility in Mesa del Sol. In August 2023, Singapore-based Maxeon Solar Technologies announced plans to build a $1 billion, three-gigawatt solar panel factory, which will create 1,800 jobs.

If Mesa del Sol sounds familiar, it’s one of the sites where the AMC drama “Breaking Bad” filmed. It’s also the site of one of streamer giant Netflix’s studios, which announced plans to expand its campus in July.

August 12, 2024 Ryan Kennedy

Ebon Solar, a Delaware-based solar cell manufacturing company, released a joint announcement with New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham that it will open a manufacturing facility in the Southwest.

New Mexico, which has become a center for advanced manufacturing particularly for silicon computer chips, will now become home to an Ebon Solar facility spanning 834,000 square feet.

Over $942 million will be invested to create the facility, which is expected to generate 900 full-time jobs. The project is developed in Albuquerque’s Mesa del Sol industrial development area.

The Albuquerque Regional Economic Alliance (AREA) served as a key project management partner throughout Ebon Solar’s market evaluation process, facilitating many visits, interviews, and data analysis of the region and site selection support.

“We are thrilled to welcome Ebon Solar to the market; it not only represents a significant capital investment and new jobs to the community but aligns with PNM’s sustainability goals,” said Don Tarry, president and chief executive officer of electric utility PNM and the 2024 AREA Board Chair.

The Ebon Solar factory addresses a critical early upstream stage of the solar panel supply chain. Solar panels are made in a process from raw polysilicon mining, to refining into ingots, cutting into wafers, manufactured into cells, and finally assembled as modules.

While module assembly plants are opening in droves in the United States, with total cumulative capacity growing 71% nationwide in Q1 2024 alone, the need for earlier stages of the chain to be addressed becomes clear. However, cell manufacturing and other early-stage manufacturing processes are quite expensive to build and operate, as evidenced by Ebon Solar’s nearly $1 billion price tag.

(Read: “Can the U.S. fill its domestic solar supply chain gaps?”)

“Ebon Solar is proud to be an innovator in technologies that support renewable energy,” said Judy Cai, chief executive officer, Ebon Solar. “The choice of Albuquerque for our investment aligns with our commitment to sustainable innovation, and New Mexico offers abundant solar resources, favorable renewable energy policies, and a dedicated, skilled workforce.”