Oct. 1--Two solar energy developers from California have Luna County on their minds. BrightSource Energy, Inc., of Oakland and NextLight Renewable Power, LLC., of San Francisco signed five option agreements to access state trust lands with the Commissioner of Public Lands Patrick Lyons.

BrightSource signed two options to secure 7,520 acres in Luna County and 6,574 acres in Hidalgo County. NextLight signed three options for 2,722 acres in Luna County, 3,714 acres in Hidalgo County and 865 acres in Valencia County. For the options, BrightSource paid $60,374 and NextLight paid $35,206.

"As America attempts to wean itself from its dependence on foreign oil, the Land Office is playing a pivotal role in developing alternative sources of energy," said Lyons, in a Land Office news release. "At the same time, we are improving the value of our trust lands and creating a new revenue stream which will benefit public schools across the state."

The options allow the companies two years to measure solar radiation, conduct environmental surveys, perform soil analyses, negotiate power purchase agreements and acquire transmission interconnect agreements.

According to a State Land Office press release, once a longterm lease is executed, BrightSource

intends to build a 600-megawatt facility on the Luna County site to sell power to the California market over the next 10 to 15 years. The intended facility will have the capacity to power 300,000 homes annually. NextLight anticipates it will build a 125-megawatt concentrated solar power plant on its Luna County site and a 250-megawatt power plant on its Hidalgo site.

Luna County Chairman Rick Holdridge sees local land as ideal territory for solar power and says four companies have been looking locally.

"This is just an example of the importance of that resource for our community," he said. "We're going to have to be very diligent in attracting those kind of companies, they could end up being a big part of our economic development in the future."

Holdridge pointed to a map of solar energy widely available on the Internet by searching "solar energy map" or "solar potential U.S."

"You'll see these maps that show bright red if it's really good and blue if it's lousy," he said on the maps that depict solar radiation on the Earth's surface.

"The area in southwestern New Mexico is the bright red nugget. We're high in elevation, pretty far south and have lots of sunny days. I like to call our part of North America the sweet spot for this type of technology. That's why we're getting all of these inquiries."

Lyons has also optioned 115,720 acres of land for lease for wind energy development and 56,000 acres for biomass production.

According to the State Land Office, 543,922 acres of land are owned by the state in Luna County.

Matt Robinson can be reached at mrobinson@demingheadlight.com

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