A Minnesota-based energy company that supplies power to ten states is planning to become the nation’s biggest provider of wind energy. The Denver Post reported that Xcel Energy plans to increase its wind capacity in Colorado to a level sufficient to power 235,000 homes. Xcel currently supplies wind energy in Minnesota, Colorado and New Mexico, and the new wind farms would make the company the number one wind supplier in the country.

As part of Amendment 37, a Colorado ballot initiative that passed in 2004 and was a huge victory for renewable energy advocates, Xcel is required to generate three percent of its power from renewable sources by 2007, increasing to 10 percent by 2015. Xcel plans to build several large wind farms in Colorado as part of its Amendment 37 commitment. Wind will provide the bulk of Xcel’s renewable energy, though a small amount will also come from solar. Other states have requirements for the amount of electricity produced by renewables, but Colorado was the first to set these levels with a voter initiative. The amendment passed with 53 percent of the votes in the last presidential election, at the same time that Bush took the state with 52 percent of the votes.

Photo credit: Greenpeace