Hennepin County Battling Xcel Energy for Renewable Energy Credits

Date: May 19, 2010

Source: News Room

Hennepin County, home to Minneapolis, MN and a large waste-to-energy plant, is fighting with Xcel Energy, the large utility that buys power produced by the plant, over who is entitled to the renewable energy credits. Those credits are expected to rise in value as more governments require utilities to derive ever more energy from renewable sources in future years. Absent various proposed federal mandates, the state of Minnesota itself requires that by the end of this year, 15 percent of a utility's energy must be from renewable sources including solar, biomass or wind. That mandate grows to 25 percent by 2016 and 30 percent by 2020. Both the county and Xcel Energy will have to plead their case before the state public utilities commission which will rule on the matter. Jim Alders, Xcel's director of regulatory administration said of the case, "We just believe that if we're buying renewable energy, it's appropriate to count that toward the renewable energy standards the state has established."

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