NM Legislative Activity

Governor’s Office

Some good news in New Mexico is Governor MLG’s 2019, third executive order on climate that established the NM State Climate Task Force.

2022 Session Priority Bills

Our priority energy and climate bills are being identified by our Legislative Action Team.

Hydrogen Hub Acts

One of the more contentious topics this session is the Governor's push for a hydrogen hub in New Mexico. There are two acts currently in draft form that establish a Hydrogen Hub:

Discussion

Electrolysis of sea water

"A step closer to sustainable energy from seawater" article from phys.org Aug 2018 talks about a catalyst that reduces the amount of chlorine you might get when using seawater in electrolysis. Presumably brine (saltwater) would have the same problem. I suppose properly captured and separated/managed, the chlorine can go to make other products (chemicals such as bleach). I suspect it's still a research catalyst topic.

From Wikipedia on Chlorine:

   "In industry, elemental chlorine is usually produced by the electrolysis of sodium chloride dissolved in water. This method, the chloralkali process industrialized in 1892, now provides most industrial chlorine gas.[27] Along with chlorine, the method yields hydrogen gas and sodium hydroxide, which is the most valuable product."

From the article "China set to drive global chlorine capacity by 2024"

   "The global chlorine capacity is poised to see moderate growth over the next five years, potentially increasing from 87.69 million tons per annum (Mtpa) in 2019 to 92.13 Mtpa in 2024, registering total growth of 5%"

The chlor-alkali process is electrolysis of sodium chloride solutions (e.g. brine) to produce hydrogen, chlorine and sodium hydroxide (the alkali bit). Stoichiometrically, for every molecule of chlorine produced there is one molecule of hydrogen produced. So 87.69 Mtpa of 2019 chlorine (atomic weight 35.45) should produce 87.69/35.45 = 2.47 Mtpa of hydrogen. Does the US really need anymore chlorine?

Worldwide Hydrogen Production

Meanwhile, (from a Nov 2012 article) 2019 total world production of pure hydrogen is 75 million metric tonnes. The same article reports:

   "Electrolysis of water at ambient temperatures requires 50-55 kWh per kilogram of hydrogen produced* (hence 60% and potentially 70% efficient with improved catalysts)."

So just for fun let's see what the numbers might look like... the power to make the world's 75 million tonnes of pure hydrogen via electrolysis is therefore 75,000,000,000 kg * 55 kWh/kg = 4,125,000 GWh.

From Wikipedia,

   "As of the end of 2020, the United States had 97,275 megawatts (MW) of installed photovoltaic and concentrated solar power capacity combined."

If you could run it all for 2000 hr/yr, you'd generate 2000 * 97,275 MWh = 194,550 GWh. That in turn could then make 4.7% of the world's supply of hydrogen, insufficient for US purposes. At $1.8/kg H2, the corresponding annual gross income would be $75,000,000,000 * 0.047 *1.8 = $6.345 billion/yr.

US Hydrogen Demand

Meanwhile US demand for hydrogen is forecast to quadruple to 41 Mtpa by 2050 meaning it must be about 10 Mtpa now. From the above, US solar power could produce about 3.525 Mtpa H2 (with no solar power going into the grid). If NM could meet that demand, the state could enjoy that gross income of $6.345 billion/yr. For comparison 2016 NM state revenues were $5.462 billion/yr (Ballotpedia). But there are lots of buts: we should back out hydrogen from chlorine production from the calcs, for example

US Hydrogen Electricity Demand

But there's more, according to Tom's projections, for 100% energy production from renewables the US will need an installed base of 4,545 GW (by 2036) Operating at 2000 hr/yr that's 9,090,000 GWh, To meet the 2050 US demand for hydrogen of 41 Mtpa at 55 kWh/kg H2 then would require:

   41,000,000,000 kg * 55 kWh/kg / 1,000,000 kWh/GWh = 2,255,000 GWh.

(But by 2050 may be we could do better than 55 kWh/kg H2 and 2000 hr/yr is 5.5hr/day 365 days a year. See Unbound Solar)

Using a 2000 hr/yr operation, this would require increasing the installed renewable energy base by 1,127.5 GW an increase of 24.8% over Tom's 2036 number. At $1.8/kg (current fossil hydrogen prices), 41 Mtpa h2 is worth $73.8 Billion/yr.

Reduced GHG emissions

But there's more. At 7 kg CO2/kg H2 on average for steam methane reforming (SMR), converting to renewables saves 41 * 7 = 287 million tons/yr of CO2 emissions and an unknown amount of leaked potent methane emissions, for which there may be some estimates.

Sell the Cogen Oxygen!

And this is all before we do anything with the oxygen that's cogenerated! At $10/kg, the US' 41 Mtpa H2 comes with 41 * 16/2 Mtpa O2 = 328 Mtpa O2 which would on the face of it be worth $3,280 Billion/yr. Worldwide 100 Mtpa are produced cryogenically according to Wikipedia, so we'd have a big surplus!

Save Buckets of Water

41 Mtpa H2 will consume 41 * 18/2 Mtpa water = 369 Mtpa water. The water consumption of fracking in the Permian basin is estimated to generate 32 million barrels of produced water per day in 2025 (SFNM). In a year with say 10% downtime, that's 10.5 billion barrels/yr. With 42 US gals/barrel and a US gallon weighs 8.33 lb that's:

10.5 x 42 x 8.33 billion lb /yr = 3,673 billion lb water/yr

and a metric tonne is 2204.6 lb, so the Permian Basin produced water is 1,666 Mtpa or 4 and half times the water consumption needed for US hydrogen production via electrolysis, if it shuts down all fracking in just the Permian basin!

What's Not to Like about Green Hydrogen?

So the next questions might be: how much of the US hydrogen business can NM enjoy if we overbuild solar and wind, and how much excess power could we generate, convert to hydrogen and sell to the industrial users, let alone for energy storage and transportation? Then compare that to just selling the power. Is it quicker and cheaper to ship H2 in trucks or pipelines than wait forever (10+years) to build transmission lines to ship out the energy? And where do we locate all this infrastructure and what will be actual costs of construction etc.?

We definitely would like to make green (renewable) hydrogen to back out gray (fossil fuel) hydrogen! Isn't that a major point?

May be I can sum up my googling research:

   green hydrogen is not a problem as far as water usage is concerned
   green hydrogen save tons of water if it stops having to frack for more methane
   green hydrogen in transportation does not have a leakage (permeation) problem
   green hydrogen is big business when phasing out gray hydrogen (SMR)
   green hydrogen will cut GHG emissions a lot.
   the power requirements to meet hydrogen demand may be only as much a 1/4 of total needs.
   building out a green hydrogen business in NM could go along way to meeting our state budgetary needs
   technological improvements in efficiencies and such make this picture improve all around.

2021 Session Priority Bills

Our priority energy and climate bills are listed on our website.

2020 Session

Passed

HM 9 - State Renewable Investment Plan

HM9 - The 'State Renewable Investment plan' directed the NM State Investment Council to create a plan to invest part of its $28 billion dollar state investment fund into New Mexico renewable energy projects. This could include loans, financing or equity in renewable energy generation, storage or transmission, and economically targeted investment to place infrastructure on State Land and Native American land.

SM 63 - Community Solar Working Group

SM 63 - Requests the legislature to form a working group to review statewide community solar initiatives and develop recommendations that result in a sustainable and scalable market-based program for the state of New Mexico.

HB 166 - Healthy Soil Program Funding

HB 166 - Provides for an increase of $300,000 in the New Mexico Department of Agriculture’s (NMDA) budget for the 2019-HB 204 Healthy Soil Program.

HB 233 - Energy Grid Modernization Roadmap

HB233 - Passed in 2020 Short Session this bill funds initiatives via grants to suitable institutions in an effort to create a New Mexico energy roadmap.

SB 29 - Solar Market Development Tax Credit

SB 29 - Provides tax credits for consumers installing solar power with low-income individuals receiving double the amount of the tax credit.

Not Passed

HB9 / SB80 Community Solar Act - Authorizes creation of community owned solar facility of up to 5MW.

HB99 - Renewable Energy Investment Policy Funding - Would provide auxiliary funding for HM9 State Renewable Investment Plan program. The State Investment Council also has the ability to fund the program without legislation.

HB173 - Gas Taxes, New Funds & Distributions - Impose surtaxes on gasoline and special fuels and devote the proceeds equally to the state road fund, to a new clean infrastructure fund, and to a new gas surtax low-income rebate fund. It's being called "The Next Generation Transportation Act"!

HB201 - Energy Storage System Tax Credit Changes - Would provide tax credits to individuals who purchase renewable energy storage systems.

HB 217 / SB 2 - Electric Vehicle Income Tax Credit - Provides a tax credit of $2500 when a tax payer purchases an electric vehicle. For individuals earning under $50,000 and families under $75,000 the credit is $5000.

HB 313 - Car Charging Station Tax Credit - HB 313 would allow a taxpayer who installs and places in service a public motor vehicle charging station in calendar years 2020 and 2021 to apply for a credit of up to seventy-five percent of the cost of the motor vehicle charging station against the taxpayer's tax liability. The total amount of HB 313 credits to be issued by the state is $25 million.

SB 114 - Community Energy Efficiency Development Grant - This is another of the excellent new energy bills for which we will be advocating strongly. SB 114 would provide funding to counties to make energy efficiency measures available in low-income households.

2019 Session

SB489 - The NM Energy Transition Act

The Passing

NM Energy Transition Act SB 489, was signed by governor MLG March 22, 2019

SB489

which states that NM will be:

• 50% carbon-free electricity by 2030
• 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045 (same as CA and Hawaii)

Challenges

NEE et al filed suit in NM Supreme Court on 8/26/19 challenging parts that they perceived as unconstitutional (Aug/2019), see NEE’s announcement at:

NEE Challenge

and the MM Supreme Court writ at:

Case No: S-1-SC-37875

The NM Supreme Court refused to hear this writ. NEE continues to campaign to ‘restore’ power to the PRC to regulate PNM. Other NM Supreme Court efforts are still in progress.

What is the ETA?

High Country News called the ETA a mini-Green New Deal in this thorough reporting:

"New Mexico’s ‘mini’ Green New Deal, dissected" - Jonathan Thompson - March 25, 2019

Western Resource Advocates explains what’s in the act and it’s benefits in their on-line article at:

"The Energy Transition Act Makes New Mexico a National Leader in Clean Energy" - Maria Nájera - March 7, 2019