More than 50 community stakeholders gathered at the Monticello Community Center Wednesday morning to get an update about the future of energy from Xcel.

State legislators, county and city officials and members of law enforcement listened as representatives from Xcel Energy talked about their commitment to keep the area supplied with clean, reliable and affordable power.

Chris Clark, Xcel president of Minnesota, South Dakota, and North Dakota, spoke about how the power landscape is changing.  

“There’s a tremendous transformation happening in our industry. We are adapting a lot with wind,” he said. “We are the nation’s number one wind leader for many years.”

Clark said that is one part of Xcel’s plan towards major reductions in carbon-derived energy.

“Our nuclear plants, combined with the wind and solar, are really helping us become a nation leader in reducting carbon production. We’re on par to achieve 80% carbon reduction by 2030,” he said.

But that also means closing coal plants - all of their coal plants in the Midwest, and Sherburne County will feel the impact.

“We know that it’s not just close the plant and on we go,” he said. “We know it has a tremendous impact to the workforce and to the communities, so we’re working hard to make that transition the right way.”

He talked about Xcel’s commitment to help with economic development and their assistance with the relocation of Northern Metals to Becker and talks with Google.

Power Generation General Manager Randy Capra spoke about the eventual closing of Sherco and the transition to natural gas. The timeline remains 2023 for Unit 2, 2026 for Unit 1 and 2030 for Unit 3.

He showed examples of other coal plants that have already made the transition to gas and how they achieved it - Black Dog, Riverside High Bridge.

Black Dog built within its existing footprint. Riverside added a combined cycle building to the existing plant. High Bridge was leveled and a new plant was built.

Capra said it is likely Sherco will follow a path similar to Riverside, adding on to the existing plant.

“That’s what we’ll probably see at Sherco,” he said.

Those plans are in the preliminary stages, said Capra, but the transition for employees is already underway with training for new types of operations.

“We’re getting employees prepared for their step,” he said. 

Clark said Xcel’s aspirational goal is to be completely carbon free by 2050.

“We know how we’ll get to the 80% (by 2020), it’s that mix of closing coal, adding some gas for reliability, continuing to operate our nuclear units through their life and adding wind and solar,” he said. “It’s really about embracing innovations and technology.”

He said prices have continued to drop for solar and wind, and new technology in nuclear, plus the potential addition of battery storage are just parts of the formula. 

“We know we can achieve it if we put our minds to it,” he said.