Dive Brief:

• Public Service Company of New Mexico plans to build four 10 megawatt solar power plants at a cost of $79 million to help keep it on track to meet the state 20% renewables by 2020 mandate.
• The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) will hold public hearings before approving the plan by the end of 2014.
• The solar capacity will also help PNM replace two of four units at the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station expected to be closed to meet federal haze requirements.

Dive Insight:

Following a competitive bidding process, PNM picked a joint venture between Albuquerque’s Affordable Solar Inc. and Spain’s GranSolar S.A. to build two of the 10 megawatt projects and juwi Solar Inc. to build the other two.

Sites have not been chosen but construction is expected to create local jobs and thousands of dollars of tax revenue for the selected counties.

PNM has decided on polycrystalline silicon PV solar modules mounted on single-axis tracking devices.