“It’s the most inspirational work that I’m doing…this is an inspirational and aspirational effort…at the heart of it is love of place and energy democracy.” Mariel Nanasi and the citizens of Santa Fe, NM, are exploring the economic and environmental benefits of more local and locally-controlled energy production.  Is their city ready to take the lead?
Find out in this interview with Mariel, Executive Director ofNew Energy Economy, recorded via Skype on November 22, 2013.
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A Failure to Take Advantage
The incumbent electric monopoly serving Santa Fe, Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), gets just 1 percent of its energy from solar in a state that some call the “Saudi Arabia of solar.” The result is a citizen-driven movement to explore a city-owned utility, and to make the most of the local renewable resource.
Mariel says, “I look at my kids in their eyes.  I don’t say ‘you have so much potential’ and leave it at that.  I want them to maximize their potential….We have abundant solar and wind resources in New Mexico.  The incumbent monopoly has failed to take advantage.”
New Energy Economy commissioned a study to see what would happen if the city, becoming the electric utility, did take advantage of its local resource.  The results are remarkable.
Doubling Efficiency, Doubling Renewables, Cutting Costs
In a study released in December 2012 and benignly titled “Preliminary Economic Feasibility Assessment of a Publicly-Owned Electric Utility for the City of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County,” the city learned that an energy switch to public power could be momentous:
  • It could double savings from energy efficiency from 8 percent to 20 percent
  • It could more than double renewable energy production from 20 percent to 45 percent
  • It could cut coal’s share of their energy supply from 60 percent to zero
  • It could increase the percent of local energy fivefold (and possibly much further with local utility-scale solar and city ownership of a combined-cycle natural gas power plant)
  • It could increase customer-sited and -scaled energy from a pittance to over 11 percent
  • It could cut energy bills by 10 percent to 15 percent