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New Mexico clean-power progress comes with pending PNM projects and worker-transition gaps
Canary Media reports New Mexico reached 50% renewable electricity in 2024 and PNM produced 80% carbon-free power in 2025. Its proposed new resource package remains before regulators and includes a gas peaker.
By Greener Numbers Editorial Team · Published October 24, 2026 · Updated 10/24/2026
New Mexico reached 50% renewable electricity in 2024, ahead of its 2030 milestone, Canary Media reported on October 21. The same report says Public Service Company of New Mexico, the state's largest utility, produced 80% carbon-free electricity in 2025. Those are different measures: renewable electricity and carbon-free electricity are not interchangeable, and PNM's result is not the same as a statewide utility-by-utility compliance finding.
The 2019 Energy Transition Act sets investor-owned utility targets of 50% renewable portfolios by 2030, 80% by 2040 and 100% carbon-free power by 2045, according to the report. Early progress does not mean the final 2045 target has already been met or that electricity prices will automatically fall.
PNM has asked regulators to approve a resource package containing 800 megawatts of wind, 240 megawatts of solar and 610 megawatts of battery storage. The batteries are roughly divided between four-hour and eight-hour systems. Megawatts measure power capacity, not the amount of electricity those resources will produce over a year.
The proposal also includes a 40-megawatt gas peaker called La Luz II. PNM says the combined portfolio is needed for reliability, while some environmental groups oppose adding fossil-fuel capacity before the state's clean-power deadline. The proposal remains subject to regulatory review, with further gas-plant hearings scheduled for January and a decision expected in the second quarter of 2027, Canary reports.
The projects could support PNM's planned July 2031 exit from its 200-megawatt stake in the Four Corners coal plant and an expected 40% increase in electricity consumption by 2032. These are planning assumptions and proposed changes, not proof that construction, approvals or the demand forecast are guaranteed.
The report also documents delays in support for workers displaced by the San Juan coal closure. Legal challenges, appropriation timing and eligibility rules delayed payments, and some workers never received help despite later changes. A 2025 Community Benefit Fund added $17 million for energy-transition jobs programs. New Mexico's generation progress therefore should not be read as evidence that every affected worker or community has already benefited.
Official source: Canary Media ↗