Xcel turns to the wind
St. Paul, Minn. — Xcel has announced plans to build a new wind farm in Minnesota. The company is the nation's largest distributor of wind energy. Xcel Energy owns a wind farm in Colorado, but not one in Minnesota. Most of the wind power it buys comes from machines owned by someone else.
Renewable energy sources like wind and hydro-power make up only 10 percent of Xcel's current power generation.
Like many energy companies, Xcel still relies on coal for the bulk of its power. But momentum is building in Congress -- and at the state Capitol -- to regulate greenhouse emissions from coal and other power plants.
Brian Kletscher, who chairs a 17-county group called the Rural Minnesota Energy Board, says his only concern is that Xcel Energy makes room on its transmission lines for locally-owned wind power as well as its own. His group promotes farmer-owned and locally-owned wind power.
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