Posts Tagged ‘Hatch’

Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin

By Todd G. Dickson

Efforts are progressing to build a solar power plant in Hatch, which could be ready to begin generating 5 megawatts by summer 2011.

So far, NextEra Energy Resources has negotiated a power purchase agreement with El Paso Electric Co. and secured a 35-acre site in the village’s industrial park. The agreement with El Paso Electric is part of the utility’s rate request for 2011 that still needs to be signed off by the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission.

Should all the regulatory requirements be cleared over the next several months as expected, construction on the plant could start in December or January 2011 and be operational by June 2011.

The proposal may be a small plant by the company’s standards – NextEra Energy Resources is the largest U.S. company in the renewable energy market with a total generating capacity of more than 18,000 megawatts in its operations in 28 states and Canada – but the Hatch plant will be using new technology that gets its energy from the sun in a more concentrated fashion.

This would make the Hatch plant the largest plant in North America using concentrated solar photovoltaics, said Cory Ramsel, NextEra Energy Resources project manager.

“It’s a little project, but it’s a step in the right direction,” Ramsel said.

The plant would have 90 stations 55 feet tall with solar panels 40 feet wide that will automatically follow the sun’s path. The panels have specialized optics that greatly concentrate the sunlight onto silicon cells to generate electricity. It’s a method that was first developed by Sandia National Laboratories.

There are still issues such as the regulatory steps and getting the transmission system in place, but Ramsel is cautiously optimistic that the proposal will come to fruition, noting the cooperation he’s received from Hatch officials.

“We have a good partnership with the village,” he said.

Jim Hayhoe, a consultant to the Village of Hatch, began working on the project almost two years ago. Hayhoe, who is interested in helping Spaceport America bring economic development to the local communities, said the effort began with conversations with the spaceport’s former executive director Steve Landeene.

Landeene told Hayhoe he was interested in getting some kind of solar generation project going for the spaceport, which is located in the desert between Hatch and Truth or Consequences. At the 2008 International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight, Hayhoe met Paul Turner of Renergix Solar. By early 2009, Renergix formed a partnership with NextEra to get the project going.

The project work has intensified greatly the last few months, Hayhoe said.

While the mostly automated facility will only need two full-time employees, the construction could require as many 30 workers, Hayhoe said. Also, the plant will become the flagship for the industrial park to attract other green industries, he said, and the village is moving to set aside adjacent land to allow for future expansion of the plant.

NextEra Energy Resources, which has a wind plant in eastern New Mexico, sees the state as having promising renewable energy resources, Ramsel said.

NextEra Energy Resources is the largest U.S. producer of renewable energy from the wind and the sun. According to its website, the company is the No. 1 solar power generator in the United States and the No. 1 wind energy producer in North America.

The company co-owns and operates seven solar plants in California’s Mojave Desert, the world’s largest solar site. In all, NextEra Energy Resources operates 310 megawatts of solar power, which is capable of meeting the energy needs of about 230,000 homes.

In 2009, NextEra Energy Resources corporate parent, NextEra Energy Inc., reported revenues of more than $15 billion and employed more than 15,000 employees. Headquartered in Juno Beach, Fla., NextEra Energy’s principal subsidiaries are NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, the largest generator in North America of renewable energy from the wind and the sun, and Florida Power & Light Company (FPL), which serves approximately 4.5 million accounts in Florida and is one of the largest rate-regulated electric utilities in the country. Through its subsidiaries, NextEra Energy collectively operates the third largest U.S. nuclear power generation fleet, according to its website.

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Thank you to all who attended Tuesday’s Business on the Border Luncheon where Dr. Chris Erickson from NMSU provided his economic outlook and forecast for Las Cruces and the region.  Dr. Erickson presented employment information illustrating that although Las Cruces has fared better than both the national average and New Mexico as a whole, in terms of employment growth, we are still behind our peak employment numbers experienced in the mid 2000’s.  Dr. Erickson stated that it will take approximately three years to catch back up to those previously experienced levels.   Dr. Ericson also commented that although it appears that the country as a whole is moving out of the current recession, which has lasted a staggering 20 months, we must nevertheless not rule out the possibility of a double dip recession.  If you are interested in a copy of Dr. Erickson’s presentation, it can be downloaded by clicking the graphic.

From an economic development perspective we enter the new fiscal year cautiously optimistic.  Over the past fiscal year, MVEDA has developed over 100 leads and over 45 initial site visits.  We also carry forward a strong pipeline of projects which we believe have a strong chance of closing in the coming fiscal year.   We are also experiencing much more diversification amongst the types of industries that have expressed interest in the region.  MVEDA’s top 10 active prospects include 3 manufacturing companies, 2 aerospace companies, 2 renewable energy companies, one food processing company as well as one high tech company.   Together these 10 prospects potentially could create the need for over 2,000,000sf of space and create as many as 600 to 700 jobs.

We are also beginning to see some recurring themes in terms of the anecdotal data we pull from prospects.  For example, whereas over the past fiscal year it appeared financing was the leading driving indicator of a business’ locate decision; we are now seeing more inquiries once again surrounding work force needs.   Additionally we are receiving more inquiries for build-to-suit opportunities as opposed to existing inventory.  Both questions lead us to believe that access to capital is slowly becoming more available which should bode well for economic development initiatives.

This past fiscal year, we also showed success in developing opportunities within the rural areas of the County.  MVEDA conducted site visits to Hatch, Rincon, Anthony, Chaparral, Santa Teresa and Sunland Park amongst other locations.  We are proud to say that one of these actually led to the “locate” of Universal Plastics in Anthony, NM.

Although optimistic, we cannot lose sight that there is still much to do to spark economic development within the state and region. The MVEDA Board of Directors and staff met last week to outline our strategic plans for the new fiscal year.  At the session, MVEDA updated its regional economic development SWOT analysis and recognized that although we have been successful in addressing many of our economic development weaknesses, there are several new arising threats and barriers that we must be aware of.   They include:

1. Uncertainty of a new administration:  A new administration always puts pause in private sector decision making.  Will the next administration be business friendly?
2. Uncertainty of business attraction incentives:  Recently the State has been experiencing budgetary challenges with its most “tried and true” incentive; Job Training Incentive Program (JTIP).  Recent changes have lowered the reimbursable amount on JTIP funding in urban areas (ie…Las Cruces) from 50% to 30%.  Incentives such as JTIP are the only tools most economic development programs across New Mexico have to be competitive in business attraction.  Will they be further reduced?
3. Regional and Local Incentives:  Serious consideration needs to be placed into the development of localized incentives for economic development.  Communities throughout the country, especially in Texas have economic development funds by which they can tap into for job creation.
4. Border competitiveness:  Recently El Paso announced the acquisition of 1,000 acres of land in Tornillo for the development of an industrial park with a port of entry which they will break ground on in 2012.  How will this affect our port of entry and future economic development opportunities in Santa Teresa?

These are challenges that MVEDA recognizes and, as an organization, must consistently retool our marketing efforts and plan strategically to deal with new challenges that arise.  And we can only hope that a “double dip” by the national economy is avoidable.

I look forward to seeing everyone at our next Business on the Border Luncheon where MVEDA will be providing a year end re-cap.  We will also have a guest speaker from the New Mexico Small Business Assistance Program which is a program that leverages technology and expertise at our National Laboratories and can provide up to $20,000 in technical support to companies in the region.

The City of Las Cruces and Dona Ana County will host the fourth round of Vision 2040 public input meetings the week of October 19, 2009.  All residents of Dona Ana County and Las Cruces who are interested in long range planning and improving their community are encouraged to attend.

These meetings will be led by our consultants at Peter J. Smith & Company.  The primary focus will be a presentation of current draft Vision 2040 documents.  Participants will be asked to provide their comments on the draft documents, as we chart a preferred course for our region.

The meeting schedule is as follows:

Monday, Oct. 19^th, 5pm-8pm; Hatch – Hatch Community Center, 837 W. Hall St.

Wednesday, Oct. 21^st, 10am-1pm; Las Cruces – Dona Ana County Gov. Center, 845 Motel Blvd

Wednesday, Oct. 21^st, 5pm-8pm; Chaparral – Chaparral Middle School, 290 E. Lisa

Thursday, Oct. 22^nd, 9am-12pm; Vado/Del Cerro – Del Cerro Community Center, 180 La Fe Ave.

Thursday, Oct. 22^nd, 5pm-8pm; Las Cruces – Sonoma Elementary School, 4201 Northrise Dr.

Vision 2040 is a long-range, regional comprehensive planning project that is evaluating the needs of the region for the next thirty years, and identifying ways the City and County should act to meet those needs. Specific topics will include population growth and land use, transportation and infrastructure, environmental issues, affordable housing, economic development and many others.

In addition to the public meetings, the City and County are seeking written comments on draft documents.  These documents include the Vision 2040 Regional Plan, City of Las Cruces and Dona Ana County Comprehensive Plans, Inventory, and Appendix.  These documents are available for download from http://vision2040.nmsu.edu/documents.html.  Hard copies will also be available for review soon at the following locations:

• Munson Senior Center
• Mesilla Park Community Center
• Benavidez Community Center
• East Mesa Recreation Center
• City Hall
• City Office Center
• Mesilla Town Hall
• Doña Ana County Planning Office
• Hatch Community Center
• Radium Springs Community Center
• Doña Ana Community Center
• Del Cerro Community Center
• Anthony Water Offices
• Chaparral Water Offices
• Sunland Park Planning Offices
• Organ Community Center
• Rincon Community Center

The public is encouraged to submit comments on these documents by Friday, October 30th.  Written comments may be submitted online at http://vision2040.nmsu.edu/Comments.html, by e-mail to ahume@las-cruces.org, or by mail to Andy Hume, PO Box 20000, Las Cruces, NM 88004.

For more information, e-mail ahume@las-cruces.org, visit http://vision2040.nmsu.edu/or contact Andy Hume, at 575/528-3047. The TTY number is 541-2182.