Remember the RFP issued back in June by PNM, El Paso Electric, Southwest Public Service and Tri-State Generation and Transmission regarding a solar power plant they want to build?

The electricity generated from the plant would help the companies meet the requirements of New Mexico’s Renewable Portfolio Standards. The standards require electric utilities to produce or buy increasing amounts of renewable energy over time: 6 percent of sales by 2007, 10 percent by 2011, 15 percent by 2015, and 20 percent by 2020.

The Albuquerque Journal’s John Fleck asked PNM where the project stood, and gives us an update on his blog. Fourteen proposals were submitted and a decision won’t be made until early 2009.

Fleck says ownership of the solar plant is “up in the air” since the impetus to get a third party to build the plant was attributable to the fact that at the time the RFP went out, utilities weren’t eligible for federal solar energy tax credits. That’s changed now, apparently:

One question up in the air right now is the ownership of the new plant. When the RFPs went out, only non-utilities were eligible for federal solar energy tax credits. That changed in October, which may change the underlying economics of having a third party build the plant and sell the electricity to PNM and the other utilities, versus the utilities themselves having an ownership stake.