Thank you for being on the board nomination committee. Your dedication to the mission of NMSEA to promote solar and sustainability is laudatory. Add me to your list, please.

Our mission is not complete, so we need to stick around to ensure no bad players get us off track.

Ashok and all, awesome job with the Annual meeting, keeping NMSEA open and bringing in students. I have a few concerns for the future, though.

• Our TOP focus should be climate action until the state is at least on track to address more than just electric generation.
• The Solar trailer needs fundraising. I know it’s been difficult, but I believe we have enough supporters in the community to have the fundraising complete. The solar industry was one of the least impacted. AND now with the solar tax credit stable for a couple more years… If we cannot even raise $15k for that project, how will we ever get a national conference organized and funded? They never “make” money really. So I would like to see Ashok raise the funds before we’re on the hook for the national.
• Any 50th celebration or National Conference also needs the community at-large to be involved. And it is typically held at a University. What efforts have been made to set up relationships with either Albuquerque/UNM or Socorro/NMT?

Otherwise, do we have the will, the way, and the why to achieve any of these goals?

Athena Christodoulou

I would like to put myself up for consideration for a position on the board of NMSEA. I have seen that my work for NMSEA over the summer 2020 internship was valuable, but is not yet finished. I have worked diligently to design the new SunChaser 2k20 as a useful education tool for renewable energy concepts. This SunChaser will fill the role of being the most sophisticated renewable energy education tool New Mexico has seen, and will act to teach young and old alike the merits of renewable energy, and specifically, solar energy. In addition, once complete, the sponsorship system for the SunChaser will act as a consistent source of funding for NMSEA as a nonprofit organization that is currently dependent on donations from a small pool of active members.

For my part, I would like to be considered for a board position in-charge of the completion of the SunChaser 2k20 project. Currently, the SunChaser is just a concept with much work left to be done if completion by Fall 2021 is still the goal. This includes the conversion of Solid-Models to a drawing packet, material list, a construction packet/instructions, finalized wiring diagram including smart subsystem code, software, and hardware, material acquisition, construction with help from ACE Highschool, installation of insulation, plumbing, and electrical systems, and marketing. Throughout this process, I see multiple opportunities for small projects that can be done by student volunteers without risk of asking for too much commitment of their time. As the primary designer of the SunChaser 2k20 concept, I am in a particular position to oversee the development of the SunChaser over this next year. In my view, this includes some final design work on my hand, integration of (student) volunteers with the project, general oversight of project completion, and considerations associated with marketing. Additionally, I can provide assistance with the upcoming NMSEA 50th anniversary and the National ASES conference that will be held in Albuquerque.

Gabriel Maestas

M.S. Student

New Mexico Tech, ME dept.

BSME Colorado School of Mines, 2020

Thank you for reaching out and really appreciate you extending this opportunity.

As I working toward building a more sustainable energy future is something I work on every day, I am honored to accept your nomination.

Please let me know what you need from me. Thanks, -Sherrick

Sherrick Roanhorse

Local Government & Community Relations Manager

PNM Resources

Andrew Stone is a lifelong solar enthusiast, a lifetime member of NMSEA, and was instrumental in planning and running The First Annual Solar Fiesta at UNM in 1977. He built passive solar adobe additions to homes in the ’80’s and permitted the first PNM grid-tied PV system in 2005. In 2008, he received the first Tesla Model S in New Mexico. In 2016, he added one of the first grid-tied Tesla powerwall battery storage systems to make a residential nanogrid. 

He founded PACE Fund NM in 2018 to bring capital to the commercial behind-the-meter solar market. In 2020, he was a member of the Senate Memorial 63 Community Solar Working Group and advocates for community ownership of solar resources. He is an active board member of the Renewable Energy Industry Association, and devotes his time to the Policy Committee which works on bringing good solar legislation to New Mexico. He is a member of NREL’s National Community Solar Partnership.

Andrew Stone

PACE Fund NM

Commercial Solar Lending

Renewable Energy Industry Association board member

Community Solar Working Group member

National Community Solar Partnership member

I have been very interested in solar energy from a very young age. My father was a research physicist at the GE R&D labs in Schenectady N.Y. and was a presenter at the international Solar Energy Symposium in Tel Aviv, Israel in the 70s and was a finalist to be the inaugural CTO position at SERI (now NREL). More recently I studied Solar energy at SFCC and was hired to build controls for Cedar Mountain Solar and worked as a service technician.

I have been the Coordinator for Renewable Energy Programs and Lead Faculty for the Solar Energy program at Santa Fe Community College where I worked with industry leaders in revamping the curriculum as a Career Technical Education Program with opportunities to gain an Associate’s degree and follow in a pathway into our new Distributed Energy and Micro grid Systems degree.

I live in a passive solar home and experiment regularly with intriguing cutting edge solar applications in my free time. I also participate in renewable energy advocacy and I really appreciate all of the work that NMSEA has done at all levels in New Mexico.

Sorry for the three paragraphs, but they were sort and distinct topics which deserved at least 1 paragraph each.

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