Xcel Energy breaks national record as it continues to acquire wind projects

While the expanding solar VPPA market and battery storage markets continue to grab the majority of the national conversation surrounding clean energy, Minnesota-based Xcel Clean Energy has been buying up wind projects at a faster rate than any other company in the country.

The company recently announced that it would be acquiring ALLETE Clean Energy’s Northern Wind facility in 2022 following ALLETE’s repowering of the facility and its corresponding capacity increase from 100 to 120 MW.

“Xcel is the largest buyer of wind in the country and our biggest customer,” ALLETE Clean Energy CEO Al Rudeck told NPM last week. “As we’ve talked with them, they’ve had a strategy to build and own and operate their own wind projects and build their own portfolio.”

Indeed, while this transaction marks the first acquisition between the longtime partners, it’s merely a continuation of the aggressive acquisition strategy that Xcel Energy has deployed since 2017. In a statement shared with NPM, Xcel Energy chairman and CEO Ben Fowke said that this ongoing energy expansion was only expected to continue as the company continues to move toward its renewable energy goals.

“We launched an ambitious wind energy expansion in 2017 as part of our ongoing commitment to reduce carbon emissions,” Fowke said. “The new wind projects are among the most cost-effective energy sources on our grid and are integral to our groundbreaking vision to deliver 100 percent carbon-free electricity to our customers by 2050.”

These new projects Fowke references include 10 projects acquired across the Midwest as well as Colorado, Texas and New Mexico. Together, these projects push Xcel past the landmark capacity total of 10 GW, making them the first company to reach such a concentration of wind power.

“Xcel Energy has built new wind farms, repowered other projects, and secured new PPAs for projects throughout its service territories since 2016,” Xcel Energy Senior Media Representative Randy Fordice told NPM. “At the end of 2020, Xcel became one of the first energy providers in the U.S. to reach 10 GW of wind energy capacity online.”

But even at this impressively high number, Fordice says that Xcel still has a long way to go to reach even its interim carbon reduction goals and that the company would continue to explore additional project acquisitions across the country to boost that number even further.

“Xcel Energy was the first U.S. power provider to announce a commitment to reducing carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2030 with a vision of delivering 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2050,” Fordice said. “The company is more than halfway to that interim goal.”