First Solar’s New Mexico Project May Get Less Than Coal Plants

First Solar Inc., the world’s largest thin-film solar manufacturer, may receive the lowest rates ever for selling U.S. solar energy, less than power from new coal plants, for a project it acquired in New Mexico, according to a regulatory filing.

First Solar bought the Macho Springs project from Element Power Solar, according to a statement today. El Paso Electric Co. agreed to buy the electricity for 5.79 cents a kilowatt-hour, according to a Jan. 22 procedural order from the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission.