State Senator Clemente Sanchez, former Cibola County Commission Chairman Eddie Michael and PNM Senior VP and Chief Operation Officer Ron Talbot

Cibola County Solar Energy Center

(Bibo, N.M.) - Today, PNM and local public officials formally held a dedication ceremony for Cibola County Solar Energy Center, which came online late last year. The center is built on approximately 118 acres of land in the remote canyon and mesa ranching country in the north east corner of Cibola County, about 20 miles north of Grants. PNM invested $14 million on the new 8-megawatt solar energy center that has approximately 96,000 solar panels, providing the equivalent energy used by about 3,050 average residential customers. It will generate about $150,000 in property taxes for Cibola County.

"By next year PNM will be delivering enough renewable energy to power 150,000 homes, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by the equivalent of taking more than 200,000 cars off the road," said Ron Talbot, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for PNM. "PNM is proud of and greatly values our relationship with Cibola County."

By the end of 2015, PNM will have invested $270 million on solar power in New Mexico and will have more than one million solar panels at 15 plants statewide.

Today's dedication also included a tour of the Red Mesa Wind Farm, also located in Cibola County. On January 1 of this year, PNM began purchasing all of the energy from the 102-megawatt Red Mesa Wind Farm. The 64 wind turbines at Red Mesa produce the energy equivalent to serving 29,000 average residences.