News Release

June 1, 2011

View larger image

PNM NEWS News releases Financial news Contact PNM

NEWS MEDIA CONTACT Don Brown Telephone: (505) 241-2882

PNM’s Second and Largest Solar Plant Now Producing Power

Albuquerque: Joined by local elected officials and others, PNM officials today dedicated the Los Lunas Solar Energy Center, now PNM’s largest solar power plant and the largest facility of its kind in Valencia County. The energy center began sending power on to the electric grid today.

Comprised of 78,000 solar photovoltaic panels on 50 acres, the solar center can produce up to 5 megawatts of power. Over the course of a year, it will generate enough electricity to power about 1,600 average-sized New Mexico homes. The emission-free resource will offset about 10 million pounds of carbon annually, in addition to offsets of other emissions from fossil fuel-fired generation.

The Los Lunas facility is two-and-a-half times larger than a similar facility dedicated in Albuquerque April 20. PNM will build three more solar facilities this year, one each in Deming, Alamogordo and Las Vegas. Each of the remaining three facilities will be the same size as the Los Lunas Solar Energy Center.

The plants are being built as part of the company’s effort to comply with the New Mexico renewable portfolio standard, which currently requires that 10 percent of energy provided to customers come from renewable resources.

The company added 200 megawatts of wind energy capacity to its system in 2003. At the time of its construction, the New Mexico Wind Energy Center, near House, N.M., was the third largest wind farm in the world.

PNM is a subsidiary of PNM Resources, an energy holding company based in Albuquerque, N.M. PNM provides electric utility service to about 500,000 retail customers in New Mexico. PNM Resources stock is traded primarily on the NYSE under the symbol PNM. For more information, see the company's Web site at PNM.com.