Land commissioner visits Chaparral to launch solar array

New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard joined NextEra Energy Resources and El Paso Electric at a ribbon cutting ceremony April 5 to celebrate the completion of construction of the Buena Vista Energy Center on more than 2,700 acres of state land in Chaparral, New Mexico.

The project is the largest solar array constructed on state lands in New Mexico and is expected to produce more 120 megawatts of solar power – enough energy to power roughly 60,000 homes, according to NextEra Energy Resources, the State Land Office (SLO) said in a news release.

Over the lifetime of the lease, the project is expected to generate about $12 million in revenue for New Mexico’s public schools and New Mexico State University, the news release said.

 “New Mexico is blessed with amazing sun and wind resources, and we have a great opportunity before us to harness these resources and create new and steady streams of revenue for our public schools and other beneficiaries. The Buena Vista project adds to this rapidly expanding footprint of renewable energy production on state lands and moves us one step forward to a cleaner future,” Garcia Richard said. “As New Mexico strives to meet the renewable energy standards set under the (2019 state) Energy Transition Act, our Office of Renewable Energy (ORE) continues to encourage projects that will make a tangible impact in the long run. And now that ORE is a permanent fixture at SLO, the possibilities for future renewable energy production on state lands are endless.”

Legislation to establish a permanent ORE within SLO was recently signed into law, the news release said. The legislation builds on the early successes of the Office of Renewable Energy that Commissioner Garcia Richard established in 2019, which tripled the amount of renewable energy under lease on state lands in four years, SLO said.

There are currently 27 leases for wind energy production either operational or under development on state lands, totaling about 1.6 gigawatts of wind power – roughly the amount of energy needed to power 320,000 homes, the news release said. Additionally, there are 12 leases for solar energy production either operational or under development on state lands, totaling about 273.5 megawatts of solar power, or enough energy to power roughly 54,700 homes.

Revenue SLO generates from sources that do not permanently deplete resources, such as renewable energy, are distributed directly to public schools, universities and other institutions each month.

See a map of current wind projects on New Mexico state trust land at www.nmstatelands.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Wind_20230309_DatasheetN.pdf and a map of current solar projects at www.nmstatelands.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Solar_20230309_Map_Data.pdf.