Los Alamos County has approved an agreement for a large, 170 MW solar power farm in the Four Corners Region that will double the amount of clean energy dumped into the Los Alamos Power Pool – an agreement that divides power between Los Alamos National Laboratory and the rest of the county.
That has environmentalists asking state congressional leaders to look into LANL’s claims they cannot meet their ever-growing power needs with a similar and closer on-site array.
The new Foxtail Flats solar array will provide a massive boost in power for Los Alamos county.
For one, the power will completely replace 36 MW that was lost with the closing of the San Juan Generating Station and serve as a more reliable year-round energy source than the generation at two nearby hydroelectric plants, which depend on seasonal river flows. The project will also have 80 MW of battery storage available when finished in 2026.
The County said it will also cost far less than fossil fuel energy from coal and natural gas usage in the past.
The lab uses a significant portion of the pool’s power – about four times as much as the county, according to estimates.
As LANL looks to boost the amount of power transmitted to the lab with a controversial 115 kV power line over the nearby Caja del Rio plateau, environmentalists are wondering why the lab seems hesitant to generate clean solar energy on-site.
“There's hundreds of buildings at the labs that could be solar powered,” said Andrew Black, an environmental advocate and a pastor with the First Presbyterian Church of Santa Fe in an interview with KUNM last year. “You don't have to create a giant solar field. That could be on the roof, that could be on the parking lots.”
When asked about the possibility of on-site solar energy alternative to the line, a LANL spokesperson wrote: “All potential options (or combinations) for onsite power generation mechanisms considered under this alternative would not address the purpose and need for reliable and redundant power, would not use proven technologies for the scale of electrical power needed, and could lead to concerns with regulatory requirements.”
LANL officials say the energy is needed to run a new supercomputer to advance isotope research and top-of-the-line climate modeling.
But, in a 15 year-old renewable energy feasibility study, LANL admits it has “exceptional solar resources available at the Laboratory,” and “the Laboratory could support a number of roof mounted PV installations.”
Currently, the lab has failed to utilize this space and, instead, constructed a 50-acre solar array over a borrow pit on their property. That’s an area designated for excavation to supply material such as rock, sand, gravel, or soil, to be used elsewhere for fill materials.
LANL spans almost 40 square miles of DOE-owned property and has close to 900 individual buildings totalling 8.4 million square feet in space.
In fact, Black is now calling on New Mexico’s Congressional delegation to update the renewable energy feasibility study to give a better understanding of how LANL can use modern technology to meet its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, instead of tapping into off-site sources.
“It's an example of what LANL is doing, not only on the Caja, but throughout northern New Mexico," said Joni Arends, a watchdog with Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety. “We need to recognize it and push back.”
LANL is currently finalizing a draft environmental assessment of the Caja del Rio transmission line project expected to be released in April – unless the Forest Service steps in to require a full environmental impact statement for the proposal.
Read Andrew Black's letter:
