Solar by state
Solar in New Mexico, by the numbers
Utilities and their rates, adoption, ten years of growth, batteries, ownership, state rules and installer licensing in New Mexico, from federal 2024 data.
New Mexico in brief
6.54% of New Mexico homes had rooftop solar in 2024, the 7th-highest of 51 (3.55% nationally). Power cost 14.20¢/kWh, below the national 16.48¢, and the average system was 5.35 kW. Public Service Company of NM serves 52.9% of homes.
Where does New Mexico stand out?
The four measures, beyond price and adoption, on which New Mexico sits furthest from the middle of the ranking.
New Mexico solar in numbers, 2024
Every New Mexico figure next to the national one, with its place in the ranking (highest first, out of the jurisdictions reporting it).
| Measure | New Mexico | United States | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes with a metered rooftop system | 6.54% | 3.55% | 7th-highest of 51 |
| Rooftop systems counted | 61,209 | 5,077,543 | 17th-highest of 51 |
| Average system size | 5.35 kW | 6.74 kW | 3rd-lowest of 51 |
| Residential price | 14.20¢/kWh | 16.48¢/kWh | 21st-lowest of 51 |
| Average monthly bill | $92.88 | $142.26 | lowest of 51 |
| Use per home | 7,849 kWh/yr | 10,359 kWh/yr | 13th-lowest of 51 |
| Systems with a battery | 0.18% | 5.86% | 8th-lowest of 47 |
| Leased or on a PPA | 7.7% | 29.1% | 18th-lowest of 38 |
| Growth in systems, five years | 19.1% a year | — | 15th-lowest of 51 |
| Minutes without power per customer | 273 | 297 (median state) | 22nd-lowest of 51 |
| Homes on a time-varying rate | 0.86% | 11.1% | 21st-lowest of 51 |
| Installed rooftop capacity | 327.4 MW | 34,226 MW | — |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861, 2024 final release, retrieved 2 September 2026. The New Mexico ratios and ranks are HyreSolar calculations from EIA inputs.
Which utility serves New Mexico, and what does it charge?
The 8 largest utilities selling to New Mexico homes, by residential customers, with the price full-service customers paid and how many run net-metered solar.
| Utility | Type | Homes served | Price per kWh | Use per home, monthly | Net-metered systems |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public Service Company of NM | Investor-owned | 492,945 (52.9%) | 15.57¢ | 574 kWh | 44,953 (9.1%) |
| Southwestern Public Service Company | Investor-owned | 100,540 (10.8%) | 11.98¢ | 996 kWh | 2,161 (2.2%) |
| El Paso Electric Company | Investor-owned | 94,760 (10.2%) | 10.16¢ | 740 kWh | 9,674 (10.2%) |
| City of Farmington | Municipal | 35,990 (3.9%) | 12.69¢ | 652 kWh | 468 (1.3%) |
| Jemez Mountains Electric Co-op | Co-op | 28,093 (3.0%) | 15.36¢ | 581 kWh | 618 (2.2%) |
| Kit Carson Electric Co-op | Co-op | 26,097 (2.8%) | 18.18¢ | 492 kWh | 512 (2.0%) |
| Continental Divide El Co-op | Co-op | 20,415 (2.2%) | 16.02¢ | 611 kWh | 133 (0.65%) |
| Central New Mexico El Co-op | Co-op | 19,126 (2.1%) | 17.16¢ | 585 kWh | 779 (4.1%) |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861 2024, Sales to Ultimate Customers and Net Metering, utility level, retrieved 5 October 2026. Shares are of 931,587 New Mexico residential accounts. Each New Mexico price is residential revenue divided by sales for full-service customers (HyreSolar calculation); a wires company’s price is its default-service price.
What do the New Mexico utility figures mean for a solar quote?
EIA-861 lists 20 utilities serving homes in New Mexico in 2024, across 931,587 residential accounts.
The three largest, Public Service Company of NM, Southwestern Public Service Company and El Paso Electric Company, served 73.9% of those homes.
By ownership: investor-owned utilities 73.9%, electric cooperatives 15.4%, small utilities EIA counts as a group 5.0%, municipal utilities 4.7% and state power authorities 1.1%.
All 931,587 New Mexico residential accounts bought energy from the utility that delivers it; EIA counted none on a competitive supplier. So a New Mexico utility’s own tariff sets both the price you avoid and the credit for what you export.
Public Service Company of NM, the largest, served 492,945 New Mexico homes (52.9%). Its full-service residential customers paid 15.57¢ per kWh, above the New Mexico average of 14.20¢, and used 574 kWh a month on average. 44,953 of its customers ran net-metered rooftop solar, 9.1% of its homes against 6.54% statewide.
Among the 14 New Mexico utilities with at least 5,000 residential customers and a full-service price, the price ran from 8.91¢ at Central Valley Electric Co-op to 18.18¢ at Kit Carson Electric Co-op. At the New Mexico average of 7,849 kWh a year, that 9.27¢ gap is worth about $728 a year (our arithmetic), so the same system offsets more money in one territory than the other.
Price a quote on your own utility’s rate, not the 14.20¢ New Mexico average.
Rooftop solar is concentrated: Public Service Company of NM alone accounts for 44,953 net-metered residential systems, about 73% of the 61,209 counted in New Mexico, and 15 New Mexico utilities reported any at all. The highest adoption among the larger utilities was at El Paso Electric Company, where 10.2% of homes had a system.
What does power cost in New Mexico, and why does it matter?
Residential electricity in New Mexico averaged 14.20¢ per kilowatt-hour in 2024, the 21st-lowest of 51 and below the national 16.48¢. The price sits near the middle of the 51. With the retail rate unremarkable, what your utility pays for exported power can decide the result.
The average New Mexico household bill was $92.88 a month ($1,115 a year), the lowest of 51, against $142.26 nationally. That $1,115 is the ceiling on what solar could save a typical New Mexico home, before fixed monthly charges.
Only 0.86% of New Mexico homes were on a time-varying rate in 2024 (11.1% nationally), so a flat rate is the likely starting point. 28.4% of New Mexico residential meters were smart meters (83.8% nationally), and a time-varying rate needs one. How time-of-use changes solar.
How many New Mexico homes have solar?
New Mexico had 61,209 rooftop systems on net metering in 2024, across 936,098 residential accounts: 6.54% of homes, the 7th-highest of 51. By national standards New Mexico is a mature market, which can mean several installers to compare and a permit office that has handled solar before.
The New Mexico market counted 4,581 more systems in 2024 than in 2023 and has grown 19.1% a year over five years, the 15th-lowest of 51. Where growth has turned nationally.
How has New Mexico solar changed since 2014?
New Mexico counted 7,305 net-metered rooftop systems in 2014 and 61,209 in 2024, 8.4 times as many. The share of homes with one moved from 0.84% to 6.54%. The biggest one-year addition came in 2023, with 9,320 more systems than the year before.
| Year | Rooftop systems | Share of homes | Average size | Residential price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 7,305 | 0.84% | 4.7 kW | 12.28¢ |
| 2016 | 12,221 | 1.39% | 5.0 kW | 12.03¢ |
| 2018 | 20,301 | 2.28% | 4.7 kW | 12.68¢ |
| 2020 | 31,156 | 3.44% | 4.8 kW | 12.94¢ |
| 2022 | 47,308 | 5.14% | 5.1 kW | 13.84¢ |
| 2024 | 61,209 | 6.54% | 5.4 kW | 14.20¢ |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861 annual files 2014–2024, net-metered residential systems, retrieved 2 September 2026. New Mexico shares and sizes are HyreSolar calculations.
What does the New Mexico trend mean for a savings estimate?
Over the same years the New Mexico residential price went from 12.28¢ to 14.20¢ per kWh, up 16%, and the average system from 4.7 kW to 5.4 kW. With New Mexico prices up 16% across ten years, a savings estimate that assumes steep yearly rate rises is assuming more than this record shows.
How big is a typical New Mexico system?
The average New Mexico system was 5.35 kW in 2024, the 3rd-lowest of 51, against 6.74 kW nationally. New Mexico homes used 7,849 kilowatt-hours a year each, the 13th-lowest of 51.
A New Mexico home using 7,849 kWh is an average, not a design input: size from your own twelve months of bills and usable roof with cost by system size and the system size calculator.
Who owns the systems in New Mexico?
In New Mexico, 7.7% of systems were third-party owned in 2024: leased, or on a power purchase agreement (PPA), rather than owned by the household. That is the 18th-lowest of 38, against 29.1% nationally.
Most New Mexico systems are owned by the household, so purchase and loan offers will make up much of what you see. Whoever owns a New Mexico system claims any tax credit on it: Section 48E explained.
Do New Mexico homes add batteries?
In New Mexico, 0.18% of solar systems were paired with a battery in 2024 (112 systems), the 8th-lowest of 47. New Mexico’s share is well under half the national 5.86%.
On reliability, the average New Mexico customer went 273 minutes without power in 2024 counting major storms, and 152 minutes without them. The median state saw 297. Outages in every state.
Whether a battery pays in New Mexico turns on your utility’s export credit and your own outage history: what a home battery does.
How do you check a solar company’s license in New Mexico?
We checked 62 New Mexico solar companies from June to August 2026 against the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department, Construction Industries Division. None of those showed an expired or revoked license when checked.
Ask which license a company holds, then confirm the number with the issuing authority yourself.
These counts describe the companies we checked on those dates, not every company in New Mexico, and a license current then may have lapsed since. How to verify a solar license.
Which states are closest to New Mexico on adoption?
The six jurisdictions nearest to New Mexico’s 6.54% share of homes with rooftop solar.
Where do the New Mexico numbers come from?
The New Mexico figures are HyreSolar calculations from the Form EIA-861 annual files: 61,209 net-metered residential systems counted against 936,098 residential accounts, sizes as means, and 20 utility-level rows for the utility table, matched to net-metering records by EIA utility number.
The method and limits cover all 51; the New Mexico row is in the data as a CSV.
No New Mexico figure here is an estimate for one home: your roof, usage, utility tariff and tax position decide that.
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