More than half of the power Xcel Energy generates across the eight states it serves now comes from carbon-free sources, the company announced in its 18th annual Sustainability Report.
Carbon-free energy made up 53 percent of the company’s 2022 energy mix, compared to an average of 41 percent nationwide. The company has also reduced carbon emissions associated with the electricity it provides to customers by 53 percent from 2005 levels. The Sustainability Report details the company’s progress in transitioning to clean energy while maintaining reliable and affordable natural gas and electricity service, as well as the company’s commitments to further strengthen communities and value the people that make up its workforce.
“Xcel Energy is at the heart of our nation’s clean energy transition,” said Bob Frenzel, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Xcel Energy. “Guided by our customers’ priorities and enabled by rapidly changing technology, we’re driving toward a clean energy future, bringing reliable, affordable, increasingly clean energy to millions.”
Xcel Energy was the first U.S. energy provider to set aggressive goals to reduce carbon emissions from the most significant ways customers use energy: for electricity, heating and transportation. In 2018, the company set a goal to provide customers with 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2050 and reduce carbon emissions from its operations by 80 percent from 2005 levels by 2030.
The company has begun to implement its Colorado and Upper Midwest energy plans, which outline the new energy generation, transmission infrastructure, and other resources it will develop to meet its 2030 goal. Xcel Energy also plans to exit from coal by the end of 2030 if regulators approve its proposal to retire coal operations at Tolk Generating Station in Texas four years ahead of schedule. To support the reliability and resiliency of the grid as this transition continues, the company is helping to incubate and scale emerging technologies, including demonstration-scale projects in long-duration battery storage and clean hydrogen production. Xcel Energy also continues to develop new transmission lines and in 2022 received approval for Colorado’s 560- to 650-mile Power Pathway project. The company has built more miles of transmission over the last 15 years than any other utility in the U.S.
Through the clean energy transition, the company is reducing other environmental impacts of its operations as well. Since 2005, Xcel Energy has reduced water consumption from owned and purchased energy generation by 39 percent and air emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from its power plants by about 80 percent.
