COMMUNITY SOLAR PICKS UP STEAM
Enabling legislation advancing, despite utility opposition
Agroundswell of grassroots support for “community solar” development in New Mexico could propel enabling legislation across the finish line in this year’s session, reversing years of failed legislative efforts.
If successful, it could have a major impact on solar production and consumption around the state, allowing many residential and commercial consumers to directly purchase solargenerated electricity for the first time.
Advocates call it “democratizing” solar power by providing renters, lowincome households, and commercial and government buildings that lack capacity for rooftop installations to access solar systems built and operated by private developers for collective consumption.
That could extend the potential cost savings and environmental benefits of solar systems beyond the traditional focus on individual homeowners and businesses that have the income and roof space needed to install it. And it could ignite a new wave of local industry development, bringing significant economic impact as private companies aggressively market community solar throughout New Mexico.
But at least two of the state’s largest utilities — Public Service Co. of New Mexico and Xcel Energy subsidiary Southwestern Public Service — oppose the community solar bill now advancing in the state Senate. They say utility customers not connected to new solar installations could end up subsidizing those who are connected, because they take on more of the fixed costs for things like transmission and distribution as solar consumers reduce their payments to utility companies but still draw power from the grid.
And, given New Mexico’s steady march to carbon-free generation under the state’s new Energy Transition Act, the utilities themselves already plan to build a lot more renewable energy