Xcel Energy has plans for managing carbon emissions

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An Xcel Energy official told Red Wing community leaders Wednesday morning that the energy company has distinct and diverse strategies for managing carbon emissions.

Those strategies include wind, biomass, solar, hydro and nuclear power.

Dave Sparby, president and chief executive officer of Northern States Power Co., spoke at the annual community breakfast put on by parent company Xcel Energy. He said wind power is where the upper Midwest can make the greatest strides right now in reducing carbon output.

“We have 100 megawatts of wind on the ground today,” Sparby said.

Xcel Energy has been the nation’s No. 1 wind energy provider for four straight years.

By 2012, Xcel will deliver 2,000 megawatts via wind power, he said, and that will approach 3,500 by 2020.

“We’re one of the few companies who are going to reduce our carbon emissions - our emissions will go down by a one-third by 2020,” Sparby said, “And we’re doing this at a time that energy consumption is expanding.”

Nuclear power also plays a big role in keeping greenhouse gases and carbon emissions low, Sparby said. He turned to Mike Wadley, site vice president of Prairie Island nuclear plant, to explain the steps the local plant is taking to boost energy output.

As most Red Wing leaders know, Wadley said, Prairie Island is pursuing both federal relicensing of the two reactors and state for an “uprate” - the industry term for increasing energy output.

If government agencies approve the relicensing and the uprate, Wadley anticipates each unit will go from about 550 megawatts to 600-plus sometime between 2012 and 2014.

At 1,076 megawatts, the plant currently powers approximately 750,000 homes.

One of the most contentious issues involved in relicensing the plant is storage of spent radioactive fuel. The utility is seeking to nearly double its dry-cask storage pad. Some people fear that President Obama’s opposition to Yucca Mountain, the proposed federal repository for nuclear waste, will mean temporary storage at Prairie Island will become permanent by default.

“Don’t accept that Yucca Mountain is dead,” Terry Pickens said.

He is Xcel’s director of nuclear regulatory policy. He reviewed the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act and explained that congressional action in 2002 designated Yucca Mountain as the repository. It will take a majority of both the U.S. House and Senate to change that.

“Neither the president nor Harry Reid can undo that,” Pickens said, referring to the Nevada senator who also is majority leader and an opponent of Yucca Mountain.

Pickens encouraged Red Wing leaders to continue working with Xcel to ensure that federal government keeps its promises and follows the law.