The bottom line is driving some big new bets on renewables. As technologies improve and scale up, electricity generated from solar and wind power is becoming less costly than that produced from traditional fossil fuel sources. New wind and solar plants being planned now offer the cheapest power available, and costs are projected to continue to fall. It could very well be that the energy of the future is coming online very soon.

In the U.S., Xcel Energy is betting on new — and very big — power plants that use wind and solar for their energy sources. Xcel, Colorado’s largest utility, has millions of customers across eight Midwestern states, from Texas to Michigan, so any decision it makes has a big impact on the country’s energy strategy. The company says its move to renewables is a bottom line decision; it “expects to save tens of millions of dollars” in replacing two large coal-burning units with facilities fueled by renewable energy, reports the NY Times ... Projections are that Xcel will source over half its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, making it one of the cleanest large utility companies in the country.

Read the full article about Xcel Energy's renewable energy savings by by John Howell at TriplePundit.