Where New Mexico Gets Its Electricity
Net generation by source · 12-month average, July 2025 – June 2026.
Generation mix
| Source | Share | Generation |
|---|---|---|
| Natural gas | 24.9% | 10,890 GWh |
| Coal | 21.5% | 9,413 GWh |
| Nuclear | 0.0% | 0 GWh |
| Wind | 36.8% | 16,072 GWh |
| Solar | 16.4% | 7,175 GWh |
| Hydro | 0.0% | 0 GWh |
| Other | 0.4% | 171 GWh |
43.7 TWh generated over the 12 months to June 2026. Shares are of net generation within New Mexico, which is not the same as what the state consumes — power crosses state lines.
Counting rooftop solar
EIA reports small-scale solar — mostly rooftop panels on homes and businesses — separately, and leaves it out of the state generation total that the mix above is a share of. New Mexico generated 848 GWh that way. Counting it on both sides of the ratio takes solar from 16.4% to 18.0%.
How the mix has shifted since 2001
| Source | 2001 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Natural gas | 14.5% | 26.8% | +12.3 pts |
| Coal | 84.5% | 20.9% | −63.6 pts |
| Nuclear | 0.0% | 0.0% | — |
| Wind | 0.0% | 36.3% | +36.3 pts |
| Solar | 0.0% | 15.6% | +15.6 pts |
| Hydro | 0.7% | 0.0% | −0.7 pts |
| Other | 0.3% | 0.4% | +0.2 pts |
Compared with the U.S. and nearby states
New Mexico's generation mix in context
Wind generates 36.3% of New Mexico's electricity, its largest source, followed by solar at 16.2% when counting utility-scale plants alone or 17.9% including rooftop solar. Together, wind and solar account for more than half the state's generation. Gas and coal each supply around a quarter, with gas at 25.2% and coal at 21.9%.
Renewables account for 52.7% of generation, 27.8 percentage points above the national share of 24.9%. Solar ranks fifth in the country by share, and New Mexico's renewable generation is substantially higher than all five of its neighbours — each of Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas, Utah and Arizona generates a smaller renewable share. Carbon-free sources match the renewable share at 52.7%, since New Mexico generates no nuclear power.
The transformation since 2001 has been dramatic. Coal fell from 84.5% in 2001 to 20.9% in 2025, while wind grew from nothing to 36.3% in 2025 and solar from nothing to 15.6% in 2025. Renewables overall climbed from 0.8% in 2001 to 52.1% in 2025, a gain of 51.3 percentage points. Gas increased from 14.5% in 2001 to 26.8% in 2025, offsetting only a fraction of coal's decline.
Written from the EIA figures on this page, covering data through May 2026.
Frequently asked questions
›What percentage of New Mexico's electricity comes from renewable energy?
›What percentage of New Mexico's power comes from solar?
›Where does New Mexico get most of its electricity?
›Does New Mexico still burn coal for electricity?
›Is New Mexico getting greener?
How this is measured
Figures are net generation reported to the U.S. Energy Information Administration for all sectors — utilities, independent power producers, and industrial and commercial plants that generate their own power. Shares are of the 12 months to June 2026, rather than a single month, because generation is strongly seasonal: solar peaks in summer and hydro with the spring melt, so one month says more about the weather than about the grid.
“Other” is the reported total minus the six named sources, so the shares add to exactly 100%. It holds geothermal, biomass, petroleum, other gases, and pumped storage — the last of which consumes more electricity than it returns, and so can be negative. Geothermal and biomass are renewable, which is why the renewable share above is slightly larger than wind, solar and hydro added together.
This is generation, not consumption. Electricity crosses state lines freely, so a state can generate more than it uses or rely on imports for a large part of its supply; neither shows up here.