New Mexico’s Community Solar Program
Originally published on ILSR.org.
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the Energy Transition Act (SB 489) in 2019, which introduced the idea of a community solar program, and also mandated that New Mexico move to 50% renewable energy by 2030. However, New Mexico’s community solar program was truly born in 2021, when the Community Solar Act (SB 84) established New Mexico’s official program.
After a three-hour filibuster, the Community Solar Act (SB 84) passed on April 5, 2021. The act authorized community solar projects in the state and requires that 30 percent of each community solar facility serves low-income households. The first three years of the program are capped at 200 megawatts of total generating capacity. This total does not include native community solar projects or rural electric distribution cooperatives. The bill defines “native community solar projects’ ‘ as facilities located on native land that is owned or operated by “an Indian nation, tribe, or pueblo or a tribal entity or in partnership with a third-party entity.” This addresses ILSR’s third principle: that any community solar policy must be additive, rather than detract from any existing renewable energy policy. Subscriptions can supply up to 100% of subscribers’ average annual electricity consumption.
Watch the top state community solar programs progress in our National Community Solar Programs Tracker and click here to find more state program pages.
New Mexico is the second sunniest state in the United States, with an average of 300 days per year of sunshine. This climate makes the state a prime candidate for solar power. Early estimates suggest that New Mexico’s community solar program should be up and running by Spring 2022. The Community Solar Act requires that the Public Regulation Commission finalize the rules process by April 1, 2022.
In addition to investor-owned utilities, third parties can own community solar facilities ( fulfilling the Institute for Local Self Reliance’s second principle of successful community renewable energy, flexibility). The system is regulated through renewable energy certificates. In the case of community solar facilities, these certificates are actually owned by the electric utility to which the facility is interconnected. These certificates may be traded or sold, and serve as proof of compliance with New Mexico’s renewable portfolio standard. The community solar program will help to fulfill New Mexico’s requirement that investor-owned utilities are carbon-free by 2045 and 2050, respectively.
Tangible Benefits
A study by the University of New Mexico’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research predicts that the community solar project will be a massive boost to New Mexico’s economy. For a small state, the numbers are staggering: 3,760 jobs over the next five years, $517 million in economic benefits, $147 million in labor income, and $2.9 million yearly in tax revenue. Community Solar also offers excellent benefits to small and medium sized landowners, like local farms, many of whom do not possess the amount of property necessary to host a full-scale solar plant. Additionally, projects can partner with local farms and offer landowners revenue for leasing space to solar gardens.
In addition to the boons to New Mexico’s economy as a whole, individual subscribers will receive meaningful benefits. Utilities must provide credits to subscribers for at least twenty-five years after interconnection. The credit rate is proportional to the kilowatt-hour production of their share of the facility, and is “derived from the qualifying utility’s aggregate retail rate on a per customer-class basis”. That amount is then credited to the subscriber’s bill from the provider. If a subscriber uses less than their allotted credit’s worth of electricity in a given month, the surplus amount is applied to their next month.
The program has yet to start, but based on these factors and predictions, New Mexico’s plan passes the Institute for Local Self Reliance’s first principle for successful community renewable energy, tangible benefits.
Promoting Indigenous Power
Tribal lands cover 10% of New Mexico, the third highest of any state. There are already multiple small-scale tribal owned solar facilities, including a 115 KW system for the Santo Domingo Tribe. Native community solar gardens are exempted from the overall cap and the individual 100% of average annual consumption limits. The Act states further that “nothing in the Community Solar Act shall preclude an Indian nation, tribe, or pueblo from using financial mechanisms other than subscription models, including virtual and aggregate net-metering, for native community solar projects.
Access To All
Beyond the Indigenous-focused pieces, the program contains further components designed to ensure access for a wide variety of subscribers, fulfilling ILSR’s fourth principle. All subscriber material must be printed in English, Spanish, and, if applicable, native or Indigenous languages. New Mexico’s Public Regulation Commission vows to seek input from a variety of stakeholders, which the Act notes includes “low-income stakeholders … disproportionately impacted communities … (and) Indian nations, tribes, and pueblos.” The program’s 30 percent capacity carveout for low-income subscribers compares favorably with other programs.
For more on solar in New Mexico, check out these ILSR resources:
Learn more about community solar in one of these ILSR reports:
For podcasts, videos, and more, see ILSR’s community renewable energy archive.
This article was originally posted at ilsr.org. For timely updates, follow John Farrell on Twitter or get the Energy Democracy weekly update.
Featured photo credit: formulanone via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
U.S. President Donald Trump sits next to Crypto czar David Sacks at the White House Crypto Summit at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 7, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
What was meant to be a short-term assignment for venture capitalist David Sacks in President Donald Trump’s White House appears to have stretched into something much bigger, according to leading Democratic lawmakers.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., have teamed up with a number of other progressive politicians to question whether Sacks has blown past the 130-day limit for Special Government Employees.
In a letter delivered Wednesday morning, the lawmakers pressed Sacks to account for every day he has worked since his January start date, and to disclose where he’s conducted official business, and who inside the White House is monitoring his compliance.
They warned that overstaying the limit “would raise additional ethics concerns,” particularly as the Trump administration “moves to implement recently enacted cryptocurrency legislation and put in place new rules for the crypto industry.”
Sacks was tapped by President Trump as his “crypto and AI czar” to help shape policy in those industries. The SGE designation lets people from the private sector serve temporarily in government under looser conflict of interest rules.
In March, Sacks disclosed that he sold over $200 million worth of digital asset-related investments personally and through his firm, Craft Ventures, before starting the job, according to a memo from the White House.
Reports have suggested he’s been splitting his time between Washington and Silicon Valley to avoid hitting the cap, even as colleagues have said he has “no intention of leaving,” according to Semafor.
Warren and Stansbury argue that stretching the rules undermines the balance Congress struck when it created the SGE category. The probe also dovetails with their earlier legislation aimed at tightening transparency and ethics requirements for temporary government advisors.
Additional signees to the letter include Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal, Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley, along with Representatives Betty McCollum and Rashida Tlaib.
The White House and Sacks did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the investigation.
Honda has officially unveiled the new WN7, its latest electric motorcycle and the first in a planned lineup of larger EV two-wheelers. Designed as a commuter-friendly electric motorcycle for the European market, the WN7 is part of Honda’s push toward carbon neutrality.
The launch shines more light on a reveal we’ve long been waiting for. But with a price tag of £12,999 (nearly US $18k), the real question is whether this modest commuter bike has a fighting chance in an increasingly competitive segment.
While Honda hasn’t released the full technical specs for the WN7 just yet, the company has revealed several key features that give us a glimpse of what to expect. The bike will be powered by a permanent magnet synchronous motor paired with a chain drive, offering a familiar mechanical setup for riders used to older combustion-engine motorcycles. Up front, riders will get a 5-inch color TFT display, and the bike will debut a newly developed Honda RoadSync app, which enables smartphone connectivity for navigation and communication. For added practicality, the WN7 includes a generous 20-liter underseat storage compartment, which should be a nice bonus for commuters looking to stash a helmet or daily essentials.
Honda estimates the WN7 will offer a range of over 130 km (83 miles) on a single charge, making it suited for daily commuting and city riding. It features a fixed lithium-ion battery and supports both home and rapid charging. Using a standard household outlet, riders can expect a full charge in under three hours, while a CCS2 rapid charger can top the battery up from 20% to 80% in just 30 minutes, adding flexibility for quick turnarounds during a busy day.
The WN7 is being marketed as a practical, everyday-use electric motorcycle targeting primarily younger riders in urban environments. Honda is also promising quiet operation, easy handling, and a new sound-emitting system to enhance pedestrian awareness, taking cues from current EV regulations in both automotive and two-wheeled segments.
Production is set to begin later this year at Honda’s Atessa plant in Italy, and the bike will be eligible for government EV subsidies in various European markets.
However, Honda hasn’t yet shared key specs like top speed, motor power, or battery capacity, all of which are vital to truly assessing how this electric bike stacks up in real-world use. But with the announced price of £12,999, it’s already clear that the bike won’t be price competitive against other commuter electric motorcycles in the market.
Electrek’s Take
Look, I’m excited to see Honda finally putting an actual electric motorcycle into production. This isn’t a concept or a lab experiment – it’s a real bike you’ll be able to buy. But with a price of £12,999 (approximately US $17,700) for what appears to be a commuter-level electric motorcycle, this thing might be dead on arrival.
Unless Honda is hiding some truly game-changing specs under the panels, this pricing just doesn’t make sense. Riders in the commuter category already have plenty of options ranging from electric scooters to motorcycles, with many models from smaller manufacturers offering comparable (or even better) range and speed for half the price.
Honda may be banking on brand loyalty, reliability, and build quality to justify the price, and maybe that will work for some buyers. But unless the WN7 delivers dramatically better specs than what’s currently been shown, most would-be EV riders are likely to look elsewhere.
This might be a huge milestone for Honda’s electrification roadmap, but it’s hard to call it a win for riders at this price point.
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Uber Freight is launching a ‘Dedicated EV Fleet Accelerator Program’ in partnership with Tesla to lower the most significant barrier to electric Class 8 adoption: upfront cost.
The buyer program pairs purchase subsidies for Tesla Semis with pre‑arranged dedicated freight and route planning around Tesla’s Semi Charger network, which is currently being deployed in the US.
As the name implies, the Dedicated EV Fleet Accelerator Program aims to accelerate the deployment of electric vehicles in Uber Freight fleets.
Here’s how Uber aims to achieve that from the press release:
- Subsidized Price: Fleets purchasing Tesla Semis through this program will receive a subsidy on the purchase price.
- Predictable Growth: Fleets will integrate their Tesla Semis into Uber Freight’s dedicated solutions for shippers for a pre-determined period. This creates an opportunity for carriers to forecast revenue with confidence, while shippers gain consistent access to reliable, zero-emission capacity.
- Optimize Utilization: Uber Freight taps into its extensive freight network to match carriers with consistent, high-quality freight from our strong shipper base—helping ensure the addition of these Tesla Semis stay fully utilized and carriers see dedicated, real, measurable returns from the start.
Uber actually had a similar partnership with Tesla for its passenger vehicles in Uber’s ride-hailing fleet. Uber drivers were offered discounts on Tesla vehicles and Tesla integrated Uber’s app in its system to work with the car’s navigation and only suggest rides within the vehicle’s current range.
Now, Uber Freight will integrate its software on Tesla Semi trucks and help truckers get routes that work with the electric trucks and its
There are still many unknowns about the program. Primarily, we don’t know how much Uber and Tesla are subsidizing the trucks.
We don’t even have the price of the Tesla Semi.
Tesla originally announced a price of $150,000 for the 300-mile version of the Tesla Semi and $180,000 for the 500-mile version, but this was in 2017, when the electric truck was initially unveiled.
The vehicle program has been delayed several times since and Tesla never updated the price publicly since.
We recently reported on an early Tesla Semi customer, Ryder, complaining of a “dramatic” price increase. The price could have doubled, based on documents Ryders submitted to authorities to obtain financing for its Tesla Semi test fleet.
Now Uber Freight says that Tesla will review the total cost of ownership with potential fleet buyers through its new program.
Tesla Semi is now expected to enter volume production in 2026.
The automaker is also starting to deploy its Megacharger stations, EV fast-charging stations designed for commercial electric vehicles, such as the Tesla Semi.
It is currently primarily installing Megachargers at its own facilities and those of early test partners, but there are also a few public Megacharger stations on the way.
Electrek’s Take
This is cool. We don’t know the exact size of the subsidy, but it is a significant development that Uber Freight is offering more job opportunities for those who own an electric truck.
It should encourage more fleet managers to accelerate their fleet transition to electric vehicles.
The sticker price is often a significant barrier to EV adoption, even though the total cost of ownership is often cheaper than that of internal combustion engine vehicles. However, for truckers, the total cost of ownership is much more important since it is their business.
However, everything suggests that the Tesla Semi will cost closer to $300,000 than $150,000, and therefore, every consideration is important when making such a large purchase.
Interestingly, this new partnership coincides with Rebecca Tinucci’s recent appointment as CEO of Uber Freight.
Tinucci was the head of Tesla’s charging division until last year when she was reportedly fired, along with her entire team, by Elon Musk after she refused to let go a higher percentage of her team.
Now, she is back working with Tesla through this program.
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