Farmers’ Electric Cooperative New 30 MW Solar Array Celebrated

and NextEra Energy commission

Western Farmers Electric Cooperative, Farmers’ Electric Cooperative’s wholesale power provider, recently added 30 megawatts of solar capacity, bringing its solar resources to 83 MW.

This addition was celebrated with the June 2, 2023, ribbon-cutting ceremony of New Mexico’s newest solar energy project—the Chaves County Solar II Energy Center in Roswell, New Mexico. State, county and local community leaders attended. Additionally, executives from NextEra Energy Resources, WFEC and several local member cooperatives— including FEC—attended the event celebrating this common-sense next step that uses alternative energy as part of a more diverse fuel portfolio.

FEC will receive a load-ratio share of energy produced from this solar project. Chaves II, near Roswell, will generate up to 30 MW of renewable solar energy. The solar energy center features more than 86,000 photovoltaic panels that convert the sun’s energy into electricity.

A subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources will own and operate the project. Together, with its affiliated entities, NextEra Energy Resources is the world’s largest generator of wind and solar-based renewable energy.

Mexico’s newest solar project

WFEC will buy the solar energy output from Chaves II through a purchase power agreement signed in October 2021. In addition to the 83 MW of solar, WFEC has 956 MW of wind energy through various other PPAs from 14 wind farm sites across Oklahoma and New Mexico.

“We, over the past 20 years, have focused on strengthening advancements towards renewable energy or zero-carbon energy, with development and growth playing essential roles in providing a diversified portfolio,” WFEC CEO Gary Roulet says. “The Chaves County Solar II Energy Center will not only provide affordable energy to our member cooperatives, but it will also help us continue to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions associated with supplying power. It’s the type of project where everyone wins.”

FEC CEO Antonio Sanchez, in attendance at the ribbon-cutting, says the project is one more renewable source of capacity that WFEC added to their portfolio.

“It is an example of WFEC’s commitment to meet FEC’s and our sister cooperative members’ requirements here in New Mexico regarding the Energy Transition Act,” he

The enchanted CEO

By Charise Swanson

New Mexico Rural Electric Cooperative Association