Public Regulation Commissioner Gabriel Aguilera discusses the agency’s implementation of the state’s community solar program Wednesday at the opening of the Juniper Sol facility in Eldorado.
The Juniper Sol facility sits at the south end of Eldorado outside Santa Fe.
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Public Regulation Commissioner Gabriel Aguilera discusses the agency’s implementation of the state’s community solar program Wednesday at the opening of the Juniper Sol facility in Eldorado.
Between rows of solar panels, native plants like globe mallow and sagebrush already dotted the grounds at a solar farm in Eldorado, just a few months after the facility began operation.
On Wednesday morning, residents strolled through the new “solar garden” — which was developed by the company SunShare Community Solar — seemingly pleased with the results of the development.
The five-megawatt solar farm is the first community solar project to come online in Santa Fe County.
After years of delays in getting the state’s community solar program off the ground, projects like Juniper Sol in Eldorado have begun coming online in recent months, promising savings for electric utility customers and more renewable energy in a state with requirements to decarbonize electric grids by 2045. State utility regulators have already made plans to approve more such projects throughout the state.
SunShare’s community solar projects involve the practice of “agrivoltaics,” or the pairing of solar panels and agriculture.
At the site, which sits off Avenida de Compadres at the southern end of Eldorado, juniper trees taken up from the ground were piled at the entrance, waiting to be mulched and spread on the property. The company plans to sow native plants and grasses throughout the site and plant a pollinator garden at the lowest point on the eastern end of the property, Selena Derichsweiler, a director of development for SunShare, said in an interview Wednesday.
In developing the site, the company avoided scraping or grading the land to keep as much vegetation as possible, partly to limit the amount of dust and erosion, she said. SunShare is looking to complete a vegetation survey at the property to ensure any plantings match the plants that are already growing, but she said native grasses like grama grass are likely to be included.
The Denver-based company’s established solar farms in Colorado and Minnesota include beekeeping, sheep grazing and gardens that grow leafy greens and fruit trees, according to SunShare’s website.
The solar panels at Juniper Sol were manufactured in the U.S. by the company Heliene in a factory in Rogers, Minn.
SunShare opened another five-megawatt community solar farm in Deming last month, and three more New Mexico projects are in construction in Lordsburg, Clayton and Rio Communities.
State officials, solar advocates and residents gathered at the Juniper Sol site Wednesday morning to cut the ribbon on the facility.
Democratic nominee for governor Deb Haaland attended along with her running mate Stephanie Garcia Richard and state Sen. Liz Stefanics, D-Cerrillos, the main sponsor of the law that created the community solar program in 2021.
Haaland praised the project — and the state’s community solar program more broadly — as a way to combine efforts to decarbonize the grid and provide savings for low-income electricity customers.
“People shouldn’t have to choose between putting gas in their car, paying for groceries or paying their electricity bill, and that’s why projects like this are so important,” she said, standing in front of rows of solar panels. “Juniper Sol is making the cost-saving benefits of renewable energy accessible to all, including renters and those who can’t afford the upfront installation of solar panels on their homes.”
The state’s community solar program has been administered by the Public Regulation Commission, which in recent years adopted regulations for the program — a process that was appealed to the state Supreme Court by the state’s three investor-owned utilities — and selected the first round of projects in a bidding process.
Commission reports have acknowledged implementation of the program has gone more slowly than expected, partly due to disputes from utilities, supply chain issues and interconnection problems for solar developers.
The Juniper Sol facility sits at the south end of Eldorado outside Santa Fe.
The agency announced last month, however, that 16 of the 47 projects approved in the first round in 2023 have been brought online — including Juniper Sol — and more are expected to be producing power by the end of the year.
The commission has approved a second round of projects that will add another 300 megawatts of capacity to the state’s community solar program, more than doubling the capacity that is already in development, but it has not yet set a timeline for the second round of bidding.
Last month, the commission voted to approve a list of changes to its community solar regulations aiming to make for a smoother program based on lessons from the last few years.
One of the tweaks sought by community solar advocates and developers and approved last month was the implementation of consolidated billing. This change will allow community solar subscribers to receive just one bill from their electric utility that includes their solar credits, instead of separate bills from both the utility and the community solar organization.
A community solar company executive called the need for consolidated billing an “existential” issue for the statewide program in an interview earlier this year, noting his company Solstice was churning through low-income subscribers under the double billing requirement.
Public Regulation Commissioner Gabriel Aguilera noted the recent adoption of consolidated billing while addressing the crowd at the Juniper Sol site, calling the new regulation a “big deal.”
“This is an important feature of the community solar program because subscribers will no longer have to decipher separate statements with different fees and credits,” Aguilera said. “Instead, they will receive one intuitive bill that reflects both their electricity consumption and their solar credits.”
SunShare Community Solar CEO David Amster-Olszewski said in an interview the change will be a positive one for the company’s subscribers.
“If you can take the two bills and make them one, it just makes it easier for customers to understand they’re getting their energy as well as the grid access, power lines, just all in the same place,” he said. “It’s just opening another door for us to work with the utility and make it an easier project for customers to be part of.”
“That’s the whole idea of community solar is to make adopting renewable energy as their energy source quick and easy,” Amster-Olszewski added.
The company has filled up its roster of subscribers for the projects it has online so far, Amster-Olszewski said, noting openings come up from time to time when people move or unsubscribe for other reasons. He said SunShare has plans to enter bids to build more projects in the second round.
As community solar projects come online, the years-long delays offer lessons for an expansion of the statewide program.
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