IPP Enlight Renewable Energy has completed commissioning its flagship Atrisco solar and energy storage project in New Mexico, US.
The solar generation array reached full commercial operations in October, and the energy storage unit reached full commercial operations in late November.
As reported by Energy-Storage.news in July, Enlight closed financing for the 1.2GWh battery energy storage system (BESS) portion of the project, located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, US.
Atrisco is the largest project built by Enlight and its US subsidiary Clēnera, in terms of capacity and capital expenditure. Coupled with 364MW solar, the total project cost decreased by approximately US$20 million to US$809 million by saving on construction costs.
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The project has a 20-year busbar power purchase agreement (PPA) with investor-owned utility (IOU) the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM). In a busbar PPA, the buyer, PNM in this case, is responsible for transmitting the energy from the seller, Enlight.
Clēnera’s affiliate, Country Acres Clean Power, entered into a busbar PPA with the Sacremento Muncipal Utility District (SMUD) in November 2023 for the separate 392MWdc/688MWh solar-plus-storage project Country Acres in California.
Enlight and Clēnera are beginning three new solar and storage projects in the US: the previously mentioned Country Acres, 290MWdc/940MWh Roadrunner in Arizona, and 128MWdc/400MWh Quail Ranch in New Mexico.
Country Acres is expected to be operational in 2026, and Roadrunner and Quail Ranch are both expected to be operational sometime in 2025.
Ilan Goren, general manager of Enlight US said of the projects: “Atrisco is an important project in Enlight’s portfolio, and we are pleased to start construction of Quail Ranch, which is an extension of Atrisco and will share the same interconnection infrastructure.”
“Together, the two projects will create a larger complex comprised of 492 MW solar generation and 1.6 GWh of energy storage capacity. This represents another implementation of the ‘Connect and Expand’ strategy, where we seek to leverage existing grid connections with additional generation capacity.”
PNM’s 2023 integrated resource plan (IRP) includes what it calls “an aggressive plan” for achieving a carbon-free portfolio by 2040. This goal is five years before the state’s goal of achieving 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045.
PNM plans to meet most of its needs with 1,100 MW of carbon-free and low-cost resources and 1,000MW of balancing resources, most of which it says are already under development.
The IOU is also seeking regulatory approval of two Energy Storage Agreements (ESA) and a Certificate of Convenience and Necessity (CCN) for 350MW of energy storage (Premium access article) across three projects, as reported by Energy-Storage.news in November.
PNM says its resource portfolio is more than 64% carbon-free, and if the IOU’s requested resources are approved, its portfolio will be 77% carbon-free in 2028.
