Portales and Roosevelt County Real Estate: Renewable Energy

Roosevelt County, New Mexico  is becoming one of the hot topics of conversation among renewable energy developers world wide.  The main reasons why include:

1. Roosevelt County is in a "Class 3 to 4" wind regime as well as a very favorable solar energy regime that measures between 6.5 and 7.0 kilowatt hours per squuare meter per day- the same solar gain as Southern Arizona.

2. Roosevelt County and surrounding counties offer millions of acres of productive land with biomass farming potential, as well as local and regional expertise and lab facilities focusing on biomass and algea fuel research, New mexico's only active ethanol plant, and established agricultural commodity trading desk and transportation infrastructure.

3. Roosevelt County contains a major east-west electrical grid tie (Blackwater DC Tie), a major natural gas pipeline and direct rail access to nearby oil and gas refineries and the main line of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway. Many opportunities exist to piggyback on existing transmission lines that criss-cross the area.

4. The population in Roosevelt county is sparse, affording freedom from incompatible uses. The majority of the county is private graziong and farm land and is generally free of major adverse environmental conditions. Land is still highly affordable.

5. The State of New Mexico offers national leadership and valuable incentives to renewable energy companies.  These factors combines with the low cost of doing business in the region provide a fertile and sustainable business environment for qall types of renewable energy projects.

6. Roosevelt County is home to a fiscally-sound rural electrical cooperative (Roosevelt County Electrical Cooperative) and a number of large point-source electrical consumers that utilize between .5 and 10 megawatts of electricity per day. These include large dairies, the largest milk balancing plant in the world, and the largest organic peanut butter plant in the USA.

Major renewable energy facilities in Roosevelt County include:

1. Abengoa Bioenergy - sorghum-based ethanol plant of 30 million gallons per year situated on rail at the Portales Industrial Park.

2. Elida Wind Power- 140 megawatt wind farm on San Juan Mesa south of Portales, operated by Padoma LLC of La Jolla, California for Xcel Energy.

3. Blackwater Ranch - 6,000 acre municipal well water site available for lease to wind and solar farm operators, located less than a mile from the SPSS eastbound electrical line and less than four miles from the Blackwater DC Tie.