Formed in 2024 and stimulated by the potential of the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Community Power Accelerator Prize Phase 1, La Puente is setting out to finance, develop and provide training for a community workforce that will create a portfolio of multiple, distributed “behind the meter” Virtual Power Plants” selected for candidate private stakeholders by leveraging both public and private project capital.
La Puente is dedicated to developing microgrid solutions, including PV Agrivoltaics where appropriate, that match the needs of the people who live, work and farm in the areas north of Bernalillo and Santa Fe, east of the Sangre Cristos, and south of Taos County. All areas characterized by the valley’s of the Rios of Grande, Chama, Jemez and the San Juan’s basin.
La Puente’s region of NWNM has the future capability to generate surplus electric energy from its rural, high elevation superlative solar radiance, the geothermal resources of the Jemez Mountains, the underground carbon storage and methane emissions of the San Juan Basin, the hydrologies of the mountains and river valleys, and possibilities of biomass in the Santa Fe and Carson National Forests- all enhanced by the presence, knowledge and expertise of the DOE National Laboratory neighbors as well as State and County agencies.
La Puente is setting out to offer its communities and clients, financially transparent services, utility independence, unbiased evaluation of their choices of optimal microgrid designs, sources and infrastructures. La Puente will select technically up-to-date equipment, software and services all subject to NM legal requirements and regular stakeholder purview,
La Puente plans to enable long-term financing for communities’ Virtual Power Plants including their necessary architectures and technical components for deploying, constructing, testing and operating efficiently.