EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — El Paso Electric and NextEra Energy Resources hosted a ribbon-cutting commissioning event to unveil EPE’s Buena Vista Energy Center, an innovative new solar facility.
The center is the largest solar facility to date in the El Paso Electric service region and the largest in the state of New Mexico.
It has about 450,000 panels that have a generating capacity of 120 megawatts of renewable energy and 50 megawatts of battery storage and will power approximately 60,000 homes.
"We believe that we will be fully operational and serving our customers in the next two weeks," Jessica Christianson, vice president of Sustainability and Energy Solutions at El Paso Electric.
Christianson said the solar facility will help El Paso Electric increase the amount of carbon-free energy.
"We're most excited about this because it does double our solar portfolio overnight but we have a goal to be 80% carbon-free energy by 2035 and this is a massive step in that direction," Christianson said.
El Paso Electric currently provides about 50% of energy through carbon-free resources
The new solar facility is located at 516 US-54, Chaparral, New Mexico.
Sign up to receive the topmost interesting stories from in and around our community once a day in your inbox.