The devil's going to be in the details — and many of 'em might not be obvious to would-be pioneers in alternative power sources — but with last week's creation of a renewable-energy financing district, the Board of Santa Fe County Commissioners has taken a promising step into the future of electricity.

The idea is to allow property owners to put in solar, wind or even geothermal generating systems, using public money they'd pay back, long-term, through their property taxes. A state law allowing such financing was sponsored by Santa Fe's Sen. Peter Wirth and Rep. Brian Egolf, and was approved by the Legislature last spring.

To pay for starting the state's first such experiment, the county is tapping those ubiquitous federal stimulus funds. There'll be an effort to build a loan fund from private investors, too. But pegged as the financing is to the property-tax system, these should amount to pretty secure loans. Payments due will show up on property-tax bills. That should appeal to many potential financiers, including folks in the business of hooking up alternative power.

Eligibility for now is countywide — except for municipalities, which would have to enter an agreement with the commissioners who serve as the district's first governing board.

To what extent will such a financing system promote competition with Public Service Company of New Mexico and to the electric cooperatives? Saner customers will stay with their power supplier while taking baby steps toward new sources, so in many cases this would amount to households and businesses reducing their dependence on the lines serving them.

But last year, the state Public Regulation Commission came up with rules requiring PNM to pay businesses for power they generate from solar panels. "Co-generation," then, has at least a foot in the door.

The power company is drawing the line at third parties selling their alternative energy to PNM customers. It's illegal, says the company. So let's make it legal, suggest Egolf and other legislators who figure that independents ought to be able to supply solar, wind and other alternative power to PNM clients.

As our nation's electricity industry goes, PNM has been comparatively progressive — and likely will become more so if, as expected, federal legislation offers more incentives for reduced reliance on greenhouse-gas-producing generators. But the company, even as it sees the way the wind's blowing and the sun's shining, won't easily yield its control of the energy market.

Just how resistant the company and, say, the Jemez Co-op, will be to people plugging their photovoltaic roofing panels and wind turbines into their homes or business, is hard to say so early in this alternative-energy dawn — but we'll be (pleasantly) surprised to see folks paying a pittance for their power as soon as they sign on the dotted line ...

Still, county leaders act as if they're going to be really helpful to folks applying to join this voluntary effort. So from all indications, it looks as if they're ahead of the curve.