Over 30 Years of
Solar Experience
Taos, New Mexico is an unusual area for solar energy because of the very high solar resource and Taos architecture is varied and often experimental. Larry Mapes, the founder of Valverde Energy, has worked in the solar heating and solar electric field for 30 years in the Taos and Santa Fe region. During the last 30 years, most of the country experienced a solar DE-Renaissance, Northern New Mexico continued to be at the forefront of leading edge, cutting edge, and sometimes the bleeding edge of solar technologies as it does today. This learning environment has given Mr. Mapes a wealth of...
Read MoreWhy Solar?
Buying a solar energy system is a powerful and direct way to invest in your future, because you are buying the equipment to harvest free energy. In many cases, depending on the energy source being displaced, the break even (when the money spent equals the money saved from energy use) can be from 5-15 years. Typically solar systems are designed to last 20-25 years plus. Valverde Energy maintains solar systems the founder installed 30 years ago in Santa Fe, Taos and Los Alamos homes that are still producing energy. Many people in northern New Mexico install solar energy systems to reduce...
Read MoreNew Mexico Solar Eclipse!
The moon passed between sun and earth last Sunday, casting a perfectly aligned shadow across a band of New Mexico stretching diagonally from Farmington to Roswell. According to the NASA website, a 90% alignment of the annular eclipse would be viewable in Taos. One hundred percent sounded much better to us, so we made a day trip of it, heading to Cochiti Lake, which turned out to the perfect spot for viewing the Ring of Fire. Severe eye damage, including blindness, can result from looking straight into the sun–whether eclipsed of not–for long periods of time. Our first thought was to look...
Read MoreLarry Mapes & NABCEP @ the Renewable Energy Forum
The North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) invited Larry Mapes to participate in a panel discussion during the American Solar Energy Society’s (ASES) World Renewable Energy Forum, held in Denver from May 13-17 of this year. The agenda–to discuss the importance of becoming a NABCEP certified solar installer. Mr. Mapes serves on the NABCEP Solar Thermal Task Committee which certifies solar thermal and solar PV installers for North America. Fellow panel members included NABCEP Executive Director, Ezra Auerback; Blake Jones of Namste Solar and Andre Truitt of...
Read MoreSolar Energy Innovator, Larry Mapes in Taos News!
Taos News ran a feature article on Larry Mapes, founder and CEO of Valverde Energy, a solar company in Taos,New Mexico, serving the entire northern New Mexico region including: Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Chimayo, Espanola and Taos! We are both excited and grateful for the thorough and well written article penned by Susan Carpenter Sims. Here’s an excerpt: Larry Mapes, owner of Valverde Energy, became interested in the electrical trade at an early age. “My first word actually was ‘lights,’” he says with a chuckle. “I was always tracing wires or figuring out how this worked or that...
Read MoreSolar Heat for Taos
Adobe Chapel
The solar heating design for this adobe church in Taos, New Mexico won Valverde Energy a national award for Simplicity of Design from the Radiant Panel Association (RPA). The RPA is an organization devoted to the improvement of radiant (floor heat) systems. Larry Mapes (CEO) has contributed to RPA publications. The solar thermal system is very basic. Floor tubing is laid densely (6″ spacing) over insulation before the 6″ of concrete was poured. The concrete is the storage medium and the heat is provided by 3-4×8 flat plate collectors. The heat transfer fluid is pumped...
Read MoreValverde’s Solar Eclipse Story
Being amazed by the sun is a daily occurrence here, but we were awe-struck by this!