Kit Carson Electric Cooperative goes 100 percent daytime solar

Jun. 7—Kit Carson Electric Cooperative in Taos this week started producing 100 percent of its daytime power across its service area with solar power.

Kit Carson switched on its newest and largest 15 megawatt solar array that involves 43,690 solar panels across about 170 acres about nine miles northwest of Taos.

Kit Carson already had 17 other solar arrays producing 21 megawatts. The Questa area north to Colorado has been 100 percent powered with solar during the daytime for 1 1/2 years, CEO Luis A. Reyes Jr. said in an interview.

The new solar array also includes 12.5 megawatts of battery storage that can provide four hours of power on cloudy days or outages — or four hours past sunset, Reyes said.

The new $37 million solar array is the equivalent of about 15 of the previous solar arrays Kit Carson has installed across the region in the past six years, Reyes estimated.

Until now, solar has produced about 20 percent of Kit Carson's power, with the balance supplied by Denver-based electricity wholesaler Guzman Energy. Kit Carson can now produce 48 percent of its own power with its solar arrays, Reyes said.

"Guzman Energy is proud to be KCEC's partner delivering a blueprint for energy transition to cooperatives across America," Guzman Energy principal and managing director Jeffrey M. Heit said in a news release.

Kit Carson's solar arrays go toward fulfilling the state's Energy Transition Act requirement of 50 percent renewable energy by 2030. Reyes anticipates up to 25 percent power-bill reductions for customers. Kit Carson customers are now charged 5.5 cents per kilowatt hour. The cost for the first 10 years will drop to 3.9 cents and then 1 cent per kilowatt hour for years 11 to 25, he said.

Kit Carson serves nearly 30,000 members in Taos, Colfax and Rio Arriba counties.