A new law requires Xcel Energy to dedicate half of its Solar Rewards program budget to income-qualified customers, a category that includes schools and nonprofits.
The U.S. Department of Energy granted $70 million to Xcel Energy to help build clean energy storage batteries in Colorado and Minnesota, cementing the financing for groundbreaking technologies the state’s largest utility needs.
Renewable energy will replace the power now being produced by the Sherco coal-fired plant, which is to be retired as part of Xcel Energy’s clean energy transition.
Xcel Energy announced on Monday that it will close its last coal plant four years ahead of schedule and replace it with renewable energy — a move that will allow the Minneapolis-based utility to finish its transition away from coal by the end of this decade.
Even a renewable energy leader like Xcel, one of the first to pledge net zero emissions by mid-century, is finding it hard to end coal without adding natural gas.
