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Committee backs $20M Local Solar Access Fund to help small community solar and storage projects
Summary
House Bill 128, establishing a $20 million Local Solar Access Fund to help community rooftop and battery-storage projects, received a due-pass recommendation after proponents described its focus on small-scale resilience projects for rural and underserved communities.
The Conservation Committee voted to give House Bill 128 a due-pass recommendation after sponsors and a range of supporters described a program that would fund planning and implementation grants for small solar and storage projects at schools, community centers, fire stations and water facilities.
Senator Pope, the bill sponsor in the hearing, told the committee the Local Solar Access Fund would be housed at the New Mexico Finance Authority and receive a one-time nonreverting appropriation of $20,000,000 for planning and implementation grants. He said the fund prioritizes rural, low-income and underserved communities and is intended to increase resilience during outages, reduce energy costs and support local economic development.
Supporters included public-power representatives, the Renewable Energy Industries Association, the Sierra Club's Rio Grande chapter, local land grants and municipal representatives. PNM said the bill could help local and educational entities cover costs for solar systems. Witnesses provided examples of small projects (fire-station rooftop systems with battery backup, small community systems of a few kilowatts) and described the program's focus on planning, workforce development and matching to federal funds.
Committee members asked about cost-effectiveness and the scale of projects. Sponsor and expert witnesses said the $20 million would likely fund hundreds of small installations rather than large utility-scale arrays, noting the inclusion of battery storage increases per-project costs but also provides resilience during outages. One witness said roughly 6 to 7 megawatts of solar is the raw engineering equivalent of $20 million at typical installed costs, but committee members questioned per-megawatt cost comparisons and emphasized the program's focus on small, distributed, resilience-enhancing installations.
Other discussion covered siting and community control, market development, disposal and recycling of panels and workforce and procurement requirements; an amendment added language prioritizing hiring New Mexico workers. Committee members also discussed the relationship to other funding bills; sponsors said the proposal is complementary to other community-benefit or energy transition dollars.
The committee recorded a motion and passed the bill out of committee with a due-pass recommendation (5 yes, 3 no).
