Why a Big Utility Is Embracing Wind and Solar

[burfman]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by muriel_volestrangler (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: NY Times

Xcel Energy is a utility company with millions of electric customers in the middle of the country, from Texas to Michigan. In booming Colorado, the company asked for proposals to construct big power plants using wind turbines and solar panels.

The bids have come in so low that the company will be able to build and operate the new plants for less money than it would have to pay just to keep running its old, coal-burning power plants.

You read that right: In parts of the country, wind and solar plants built from scratch now offer the cheapest power available, even counting old coal, which was long seen as unbeatable.

Xcel, Colorado’s biggest power company, has pitched a plan to regulators that will involve replacing two large coal-burning units with renewable energy and possibly some natural gas. The company expects to save tens of millions of dollars as a result. Power bills in Colorado have been falling recently, and they are likely to fall further with this plan.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/06/opinion/utility-embracing-wind-solar.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region

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Well it looks like the air is going to get cleaner for the planet in-spite of what anyone does or says. It can happen fast or slow depending on the politics - (but we can forget about 'clean coal' being a viable option due to the economics regardless of what the commander in chief says), The greening of electricity production will happen....... so score one for the planet..... and breath a little bit easier

Burfman......

[erronis]

1. And the current invalid administration wants to penalize solar/renewables

And favor coal. Some perversity going on here?

Of course China leads the world in production of solar equipment while the US (current administration, repuglicans) seem to want that industry to whither. Wonder why.

[lagomorph777]

2. Yup, renewables are now cheaper than fossil energy. It's too late to stop it.

Sorry, Koch Bros. You're fucked by capitalism.

[lindysalsagal]

3. I pay slightly more for a clean energy supplier: turbine and wind.

Contact your electricity company and ask: I'll bet you can direct where your juice comes from.

No matter how much electricity I use, nothing was combusted.

I also have a propane burner (installed, vented, inspected, and approved: no flames, please) in my livingroom: So that's way more efficient and produces a fraction of the pollution. I also heat just a small part of my house instead of the whole thing.

I had a hybrid but it was always losing the tranny, so, I had to give up on those. Waiting for fully-accessible electric, and then I'm going that way.

Right now, i don't feel safe in my commute in a Prius: I've been hit twice in my civic and was really safe in the civic. I know people love them, but they're awful in snow and accidents....

[Still In Wisconsin]

4. Because there is a lot of MONEY to be made in renewables...

DUH!!!!

[Botany]

5. The future is coming and it will be green

n/t

[snowybirdie]

6. I have to give props

to FPL in SW Fl. They are rapidly converting to solar and our bills are much lower than at our place in the Midwest. No going back now!

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Locking - this is opinion and analysis, not news

It's in the NYT's Opinion section, and isn't about an event in the last day or two, but is an analysis of what a company is doing.

Please repost in General Discussion, the Editorials & Other Articles forum, or the Environment and Energy group. Thanks.