Kit Carson Electric Cooperative breaks ground on first of seven solar arrays on New Mexico’s Picuris Pueblo

Kit Carson Electric Cooperative (KCEC) and its partners recently began work on the first of seven solar arrays to be located on the Picuris Pueblo, which has a goal of 100 percent renewable energy.

Picuris Pueblo is home to about 300 tribal members and encompasses nearly 17,000 acres of forested land
in a valley within the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range in an isolated area located between Santa Fe and Taos.

The Picuris Pueblo Community Solar Array Project is a one-megawatt (MW), single-axis, ground-mounted solar array located on six acres of a tribal trust land. The array will generate 2.6 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy each year from approximately 4,000 photovoltaic (PV) panel modules and offset the cost of the entire energy load of Picuris Pueblo.

KCEC, the power utility for Picuris Pueblo, signed a 25-year power purchase agreement to acquire all of
the energy produced by the project and will provide the pueblo with interconnection to the grid.

A virtual ribbon cutting will be held at the KTAO Solar Center in Taos on May 6 for the remaining six
solar arrays to be built this year.

“I am thrilled to see Picuris Pueblo tribal leaders and Kit Carson collaborating to work on solar and broadband projects,” New Mexico Public Regulation Commissioner Valerie Espinoza said. “Solar is the future, and it’s fitting that Picuris Pueblo – a serene sanctuary of timeless, geographical beauty – is working to harness the natural energy of the sun, surrounded by the pristine forests of northern New Mexico. I invite and encourage the public to join me, KCEC, community members and partners on May 6 to celebrate the power of the sun.”