I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
A 30-megawatt wind farm could soon provide Sandia National Laboratories and Kirtland Air Force Base with a third of their electricity. The U.S. Department of Energy has begun studying the feasibility of building a farm on the base or on the adjacent Isleta Pueblo, the lab announced this week. It would be the first wind farm on federal property, Sandia spokeswoman Christine Burroughs told the New Mexico Independent. In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the lab also wants to rely less on the power grid, she said.
Sandia plans to spend about a year studying wind characteristics in the area, accessibility to transmission lines and environmental impacts of a wind farm. The feasibility study will include the installation of meteorological stations in the Manzano Mountains, believed to be "one of the best locations of all DOE facilities for a wind farm," according to a lab news release. The sites wind yield scores a 5 to 6 on a scale of 1 to 7, falling just short of superb, the release says.
DOE would seek bids from private companies to design, build and operated the farm. Kirtland and Sandia, which is housed on the airbase, would then purchase electricity from the operator. Construction could take less than two years.
“Usually, private companies build wind farms to sell power to utilities or utilities install wind turbines for their own system use,” project engineer Roger Hill said in news release. “Here we are looking for a private company to build a wind plant on federal land for federal [Sandia and Kirtland] consumption.”
Sandia will hold an "Industry Day" on June 10 in Albuquerque, where wind farm developers can get more information on the project — details of the meeting will be available at www.sandia.gov/wind.
