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the macho springs solar facility spans three hundred football fields and generates as much as 669 kilowatt hours of electricity per month enough to power as many as 18,000 homes state land commissioner ray pal helped broker the public-private partnership needed to get the solar plant built on state land he says solar powers potential in New Mexico is without limit there are plenty of private lands and other other lands that are appropriate to we're just making sure that we're proven to people it's worth doing this is the future this is the future for our planet and we can lead to lead the effort here in New Mexico but some are asking what took so long while some of ranked New Mexico's potential for solar energy as high as second in the nation the solar foundation rates the state only 22nd for solar jobs las cruces green chamber director Kerry Hamlin says the chamber pushed for initiatives and incentives to nurture the solar industry in the legislative session but they didn't get any of the results they were hoping for you know we're looking at this opportunity of acquiring clean energy from the Sun that is free and we're using these different arguments to kind of prevent that so I don't see that is really the best way to go about doing this hamblin says New Mexico regulators stunted the solar industry and potential growth when they modified utilities clean energy requirements in late 2013 we are reducing the incentives for utility companies to continue to apply solar energy to the way that they operate then I don't think it's really the best way to go about and supporting the industry as a whole for our state also supporting jobs so I think we really do need to have more incentives in place to make this a viable industry in New Mexico El Paso Electric has a 20-year contract to receive all the solar power generated at the mattress Springs solar facility to distribute to its customers in Southeast New Mexico person Mary Beth Stevens says their use of solar and other renewable energies is higher than currents and even past levels required by New Mexico energy regulators this project was done again as a cost competitive bidding basis with other fuel sources it was not done to meet a state requirement land commissioner Powell says macho springs is an example of how technological developments in solar and increasingly in expensive infrastructure have made state-directed renewable quarters for utilities unnecessary its competitive subsidies are very important to nurture and bring the industry in a alive but now it looks like it's going to take off on its own with macho springs and an additional facility in El Paso on track to be operating by the end of 2014 solo will soon account for six percent of El Paso electrics generation sources hamblin says without sturdy estate directives other utilities won't be as compelled to expand renewable energy generation do have potential for wind and we do have potential for geothermal energy however solar is the most accessible and easy to go ahead and put up at this moment hamblin is concerned the bigger economic opportunity is not being fully recognized we have the potential to transport energy elsewhere and if we can generate that energy here in a state that has 350 days a year of sunshine we are missing out on an opportunity to not only create industry here and bring money into our community but also address needs of other areas in the country though all the energy generated by metro Springs solar facility will stay in New Mexico Powell says solar plants on state lands are already sending energy to other states such as California he says he's in talks to build more power lines but that takes time collaboration and planning the k RW g I'm Simon Thompson