It’s time for a just and orderly transition away from coal.
San Juan Generating Station Closes
Across the nation, utilities are moving to cheaper, cleaner renewables. The San Juan Generating Station outside of Farmington once generated 1600-MW of coal-fired electricity, releasing 12 million tons of carbon dioxide annually into the atmosphere.
In 2022, the owners of San Juan Generating Station, led by Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), retired the last two units of the power plant. Since then, demolition and reclamation has been underway, capped by the controlled implosion of the smokestacks in August, 2024.
Simultaneously, the adjacent San Juan coal mine also closed and is undergoing reclamation.
PNM and the impacted communities of northwest New Mexico are now implementing the provisions of the 2019 Energy Transition Act, funding sustainable economic development and constructing renewable solar projects as replacement power for the defunct coal plant.
LOCATION
Farmington, New Mexico
IMPACT
Cleaner Air – 12 million tons of CO2 is not being released into our atmosphere
WHAT’S NEXT
A transition to renewables centered around the community’s health and economic development
What’s Happening
Renewables are the Future
The future is bright…and renewable
The Southwest is undergoing rapid energy transition. Navajo Generating Station, a huge coal plant outside of Page, Arizona, closed in 2019 because coal is no longer profitable. San Juan Generating Station near Farmington closed in 2022. Four Corners Power Plant is slated for retirement in 2031. Meanwhile, hundreds of Megawatts of new solar projects have come on-line in facilities at San Juan Solar, Kayenta, Red Mesa, Arroyo, and Jicarilla, with more underway.
Renewables are cheaper – especially in New Mexico.
New Mexico is the perfect state for renewable energy – both solar and wind. The state has the third largest solar potential in the nation, yet still only a fraction of the state’s electricity is generated with renewables. Through wind and solar alone, New Mexico could easily provide PNM’s needs several times over.
Utilities, municipalities and governments all around northwest New Mexico are investing in renewable energy and it’s time Farmington join them.
- In 2019, the Navajo Nation issued a proclamation stating their intent to move away from coal and towards renewables.
- PNM partnered with the Jicarilla Apache tribe to generate 50MW of solar, with half of it going to Albuquerque.
- Bloomfield is working to break free from Farmington Electric Utility System to explore renewable energy possibilities with Guzman Energy.
- Big utilities such as Arizona Public Service (APS) are investing in renewables plus storage with unprecedentedly low contract rates.
- Across Colorado and New Mexico, rural electric cooperatives are fighting to free themselves from the coal-powered contracts of Tri-State.
It’s time to leave behind economically unsound coal-fired electricity and transition to a sustainable energy economy.
Recent News
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