BUSINESS News:

TAOS – Kit Carson Electric Cooperative (KCEC), alongside its energy supplier Guzman Energy Partners, announced Friday a land-lease agreement and 30-year solar Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to build up to a four-megawatt solar array at the Taos Regional Waste Water Treatment Plant.

This agreement represents the largest solar array built in KCEC’s service area to date and further demonstrates the Taos community’s commitment to embracing resilient, renewable energy generation and distribution.

KCEC has been committed to its role in providing low energy rates for its members for almost 75 years, and KCEC members requested that the cooperative move towards renewable energy in order to respond to the rapidly shifting economic reality safeguarding a renewable energy future for our children. This agreement facilitates KCEC moving one step closer to its goal of 100 percent daytime solar generation by 2022 via its partnership with Guzman Energy Partners.

This pioneering solar project at the Taos Regional Waste Water Treatment Plant will be the single largest array in KCEC’s service area and provide electricity for approximately 1500 homes. The array’s construction—set to begin in February 2018 and be completed by June 2018—will supply energy to the largest loaded substation that supplies power to Taos. Together with the Blue Sky array, the effort will provide an estimated 45 percent of daytime solar energy to the Los Cordovas II Substation.

Under the leadership of Kit Carson Electric Cooperative CEO Luis A. Reyes Jr. and Town of Taos’ Mayor Dan Barrone, the Town of Taos signed a land-lease agreement that will ensure the stabilization of wastewater rates for Town of Taos’ utility customers alongside clean, dependable and affordable energy provided by Guzman Energy Partners. KCEC will purchase the solar energy generated by the array generating up to four megawatts for clean, locally derived, dependable and affordable electricity over the grid helping to stabilize electric rates.

Earlier this year, the Town of Taos Council approved the financing and installation of the first one-megawatt solar array, estimated at a cost of $2 million, also to be located at the Town of Taos Regional Waste Water Treatment Plant. Together Kit Carson Electric Cooperative, Guzman Energy Partners and the Town of Taos are building a model of cooperation in leading the way towards a resilient, renewable and reliable future.

About Guzman Energy 

Guzman Energy is a specialty energy company that finances, trades and operates energy assets across North America. The firm is headquartered in Coral Gables, Fla., with an additional office in Denver. To learn more about Guzman Energy, visit GuzmanEnergy.com.