Former Governor Tim Pawlenty signed Minnesota’s RPS into law in 2007. The law mandates that 25 percent of all the state’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2025. A separate mandate on Xcel Energy, which generates more than half the state’s energy, requires the company to generate 30 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
Qualifying sources include solar, thermal electric, landfill gas, wind, biomass, hydroelectric, municipal solid waste, and hydrogen.
Xcel must generate at least 25 percent of its overall RPS percentage requirement from wind and solar. Solar may comprise no more than one percent of that amount.
Both the mandates for Xcel and other utilities set annual graduated benchmarks.
The Minnesota RPS allows utilities to buy and sell RECs.
Source: Database for State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency