Ranch to rope rays for solar power

A new solar project on the Bar VK Ranch, south of Silver City, will save rancher Gerald "Billy" Billings, $130 a month, plus gives him an additional $130 a month for the electricity it produces. With the help of funding from USDA Rural Development, Billings had a 42-panel solar panel array built that produces enough electricity to run a submersible pump that supplies water to roughly 18 stock tanks to help water his 200 head of cattle, plus the deer and antelope that wander across the ranch, and helps irrigate trees on the ranch. The project cost $60,522, but Bar VK received a $15,130 grant from the Rural Energy for America Program to help offset the cost, plus Billings said he received a 30 percent grant from the IRS, and will receive an additional 10 percent tax credit from the state. Add that to the rebates Billings gets from PNM by selling back extra power to them, and the project is expected to pay for itself in five years. "It still sounds too good to be true," Billings said Friday...more