Public Service Co. of New Mexico (PNM), New Mexico's largest electric utility, has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for renewable energy projects that will decrease its dependence on fossil fuels and help the company meet state renewable energy mandates.
PNM seeks multiple proposals for wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal and bio-fuel generation that can be available no later than 2015. Beginning in 2015, PNM requires a total of 375,000 MWh of new qualifying renewable energy per year supplied through company-owned projects, power purchase agreements, or purchases of renewable energy certificates from other renewable generators in New Mexico.
Currently, New Mexico requires PNM to have a renewable energy portfolio that equals 10% of its retail energy sales - a goal PNM will achieve in 2013 and 2014 from a mix of solar, wind and geothermal sources and its solar distributed generation program. In 2015, the state renewable requirement increases to 15%, and to 20% by 2020.
New Mexico also has a renewable resource diversity requirement of 20% solar, 20% wind, 10% non-wind/non-solar and 1.5% distributed generation (3% in 2015).
The deadline for proposal submissions is Jan. 31, 2013. More information is available here.
