As used in the New Mexico Renewable Energy Transmission Authority Act:

A. "acquire" means to obtain eligible facilities by lease, construction, reconstruction or purchase;

B. "authority" means the New Mexico renewable energy transmission authority;

C. "bonds" means renewable energy transmission bonds and includes notes, warrants, bonds, temporary bonds and anticipation notes issued by the authority;

D. "eligible facilities" means facilities to be financed or acquired by the authority, in which, within one year after beginning the transmission or storage of any electricity, and thereafter, at least thirty percent of the electric energy, as estimated by the authority, originates from renewable energy sources;

E. "facilities" means electric transmission and interconnected storage facilities and all related structures, properties and supporting infrastructure, including any interests therein;

F. "finance" or "financing" means the lending of bond proceeds by the authority to a public utility or other private person for the purpose of planning, acquiring, operating and maintaining eligible facilities in whole or in part by that public utility or other private person;

G. "project" means an undertaking by the authority to finance or plan, acquire, maintain and operate eligible facilities located in part or in whole within the state of New Mexico;

H. "public utility" means a public electric utility regulated by the public regulation commission pursuant to the Public Utility Act [Chapter 62, Articles 1 to 6 and 8 to 13 NMSA 1978] and municipal utilities exempt from public regulation commission regulation pursuant to Section 62-6-4 NMSA 1978 that own or operate facilities;

I. "renewable energy" means electric energy:

(1) generated by use of low- or zero-emissions generation technology with substantial long-term production potential; and

(2) generated by use of renewable energy resources that may include:

(a) solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal resources;

(b) fuel cells that are not fossil fueled; or

(c) biomass resources, such as agriculture or animal waste, small diameter timber, salt cedar and other phreatophyte or woody vegetation removed from river basins or watersheds in New Mexico, landfill gas and anaerobically digested waste biomass; but

(3) does not include electric energy generated by use of fossil fuel or nuclear energy; and

J. "storage" means energy storage technologies that convert, store and return electricity to help alleviate disparities between electricity supply and demand, to facilitate the dispatching of electricity or to increase economic return on the sale of electricity.

History: Laws 2007, ch. 3, § 2.

Effective date. — Laws 2007, ch. 3, § 19 made Laws 2007, ch. 3, § 2 effective July 1, 2007.