New Mexico Hits 50% Clean Energy—Six Years Early, Leading America’s Clean Energy Boom

Clean energy continues to expand rapidly in New Mexico, where state policies and market demand are pushing the clean-energy transition despite federal policy shifts, the Albuquerque Journal reports. Under a landmark 2019 mandate requiring utilities to phase out fossil-fuel electricity generation by 2045, renewable sources supplied half of the state’s electricity generation in 2024, six years ahead of schedule, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Solar power is the biggest driver, as companies build large-scale solar farms paired with battery storage and displace aging coal-fired plants. Wind is also accelerating: by 2025, New Mexico had overtaken Wyoming for the most land-based wind capacity under construction, with about 3.7 gigawatts in the pipeline. U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich said the state will get to a clean grid but that the federal government is slowing projects that would help keep electricity prices lower for consumers.

State officials have tried to counter federal uncertainty with incentives such as the Advanced Energy Equipment Tax Credit, a 20% corporate income tax credit of up to $25 million per project, signed in March 2024 and running through 2032. One major project linked to it, a proposed $1.9 billion Maxeon Solar Technologies factory in Albuquerque’s Mesa del Sol district, ran into financial troubles, tariffs and geopolitical complications after a Chinese company acquired a majority stake in the Singapore-based firm. After Congress approved Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which tightened restrictions on companies working with “prohibited foreign entities,” Maxeon withdrew, citing a strategic restructuring. The plant was expected to create around 1,200 jobs.

Not all projects rely on subsidies. Desert Mountain Energy Corp., a Canadian company, plans a sodium-nickel-chloride battery manufacturing facility in Roswell that could cost $115 million to $120 million and create up to 180 jobs. CEO Robert Rohlfing said the technology is a safer alternative to lithium-ion batteries and that the project is cost-effective “even without a lot of government input,” the Albuquerque Journal reported.

Editor’s note: Updated Oct. 31, 2026. This story is now part of Daily Reports, our New Mexico news roundup, and was revised to credit the Albuquerque Journal’s original reporting. Learn how Daily Reports works in our editorial standards.