Large-scale Solar Power is Coming to Los Alamos

Published on March 28, 2024

Op-Ed by Robert Gibson

Chair, Los Alamos County Board of Public Utilities

By late 2026, the majority of Los Alamos’s electric power will come from the sun! The County recently inked a 20-year deal to purchase power from a large photovoltaic field and battery bank to be built a few miles northwest of Farmington.

Remarkably, the new solar power will cost LESS than the coal- and gas-based power it replaces.

The project, called Foxtail Flats (the County did not name it), is being built near Farmington where it can tie into the electric transmission system formerly used by San Juan Generating Station. That plant, with its adjacent coal mine, was our largest single source of electricity before PNM shut it down eighteen months ago. As the nation’s electric power system evolves towards carbon-free sources, transmission capacity is a major and vexing limitation. That location bypasses that hurdle.

Foxtail Flats will supply power to both the County and LANL. We have long pooled our electricity resources. Roughly 80% of the pooled power goes to the Lab. County customers use about 20%.

The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe will also benefit from Foxtail Flats. It sits on land leased from them.

In 2013, the County’s Board of Public Utilities adopted a strategic goal to become a carbon-neutral electrical power provider by 2040. County Council adopted a concurring goal last year. Foxtail Flats is a major step in that direction.

All is not perfect, of course. Solar power is only available when the sun shines, not 24/7. The battery bank will carry us well into the evening, but not all night. We will still need power for overnight and during some weather events.

Things can still go wrong. The plant is not built yet. However, the same developer/owner/operator is presently completing a similar project nearby for PNM. That greatly reduces development risk on our project.

Things have gone awry in the past on this front. Two other county initiatives for long-term replacements for coal and gas power have failed recently.

Since the San Juan plant closed, we have been receiving replacement power through a giant global energy company, Uniper. That European-based company was hit hard by falling dominoes from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Forced into early termination of their contract with the County, they will stop delivering power at the end of this month. A large financial settlement will subsidize the higher purchase price of shorter-term replacement power until Foxtail Flats and other long-term resources come online. We have other power sources, too. No service interruptions are expected.

The “Carbon-Free Power Project,” a pioneering small modular nuclear power plant planned at the Idaho National Laboratory, was recently abandoned due, in part, to lack of transmission capacity.

Murphy’s Law has not been repealed. Foxtail Flats could have problems, too. But if it goes as planned, Los Alamos will get carbon-free electricity at lower cost than coal- or gas-based power with an economic benefit to Native Americans. Kudos to County Utilities (and Legal) staff. This should be a win-win-win.