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 MoreAfter the Spring Snow Storm
Solar Keeps Going!
What appeared to be an endless stretch of gorgeous days hovering in the low seventies may have given Taoseños a false sense of security that Spring had sprung in northern New Mexico. What a surprise it was to look out our windows yesterday to see enormous wet snowflakes tumbling from the sky! What wasn’t surprising? Our solar customers throughout northern New Mexico including: Taos, Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Chimayo stayed warm and juiced up with sun-powered energy which, as you can see in the photograph of the roof of our Taos headquarters above, was bright as ever this morning. Please...
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!