What's going on, Albuquerque?

You've Got The Power - Use It!

Got an opinion or a thought about how your electricity is generated? Concerned about the environment? Rising costs? Maybe both? Want more of a say in where your power comes from? Here's your chance to get involved.

Tonight marks the first of two meetings that PNM will hold in the Albuquerque metro area to kick off a year-long public-involvement process about how power will be generated in the future. Ten such meetings will be held throughout the state in the next few weeks.

Whether you're a small business owner, an activist or just an interested citizen, this is an important opportunity. Tonight's meeting will be held in Rio Rancho, but is open to everyone (5:30-7:30 p.m. at Loma Colorado Main Library, 755 Loma Colorado Drive, NE). The second meeting in ABQ metro will be held next Thursday, July 8, (5:30-7:30 p.m. APS HQ, John Milne Community Board Room, 6400 Uptown Blvd,. NE).

New Mexico First is facilitating. I'll be there. Hope to see you there! More info is available online.

(For purposes of disclosure, I work for PNM and am part of this project. But I would probably attend even if it weren't part of my employment. It's a good opportunity to learn about how electricity is made and to discuss the tradeoffs associated with any kind of energy production).

Tags: change, climate, coal, emissions, energy, environment, gas, greenhouse, natural, nuclear, More…solar, wind

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Comment by Benny the Icepick on June 30, 2010 at 10:14am: I've been embedding too many videos lately, so I'll just link to the video that came to mind when I read the title.

That's said, I hope PNM responds to the public's call to increase its share of renewable energy sources.

Comment by Don Brown on June 30, 2010 at 10:57am: Blasts from the past -- maybe we should play those at the beginning of the meetings kind of like campaigns play songs for which they usually don't have permission. Anyway, ya'll come on down!

Comment by PNM blogger on June 30, 2010 at 12:34pm: It's actually largely because Texas has a significantly higher proportion of private land than NM (easier to site turbines than on public lands), the right quality of wind in west Texas, and the political solidarity to build mega transmission lines from the West Texas wind areas to large population centers to the east (Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, etc.). Without the right transmission capacity to carry this energy to where it's being used, and typically a utility signing a long-term contract to buy the energy, these wind facilities just don't get built.

Comment by Krista on June 30, 2010 at 12:56pm: Sophie, no one thought of Ben's song--only yours! And Rodney, that's a really gorgeous photo! I would think the llano estacado would have something to do with the wind factor. :) sounds like an interesting event! Thanks for the post

Comment by Hunter on June 30, 2010 at 2:38pm: Rodney, here's one of the issues. If you go with wide scale residential solar, owned by the resident, what expectations if any do you have for a redundant, backup system? If none, fine. But if you want a fall back in case your system fails, or even a cloudy day, how do you pay for it?

Comment by slamwagon on June 30, 2010 at 2:42pm: Rodney, what about the turbines between Ft. Sumner and Lubbock? Not Llano?

Comment by Brendan on June 30, 2010 at 6:54pm: Hunter- Most residential solar uses the grid as a rechargable battery: When you're making more power than you're using it feeds into the grid. When you're making less than you're using (Like at night) you pull from the grid. Solar residences with their own battery backup systems are expensive and largely unnecessary for most in-city folks.

Comment by PNM blogger on June 30, 2010 at 7:05pm: Thanks for all of the comments. Meeting will wrap up in next 1/2 hour, but we are live tweeting some results from @PNMtalk. Look for next ABQ-area meeting in ABQ next Thursday, 7/8, APS HQ in Uptown area, 5:30-7:30.

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