Xcel to be Carbon Free by 2050?
Many companies are moving to a more carbon-free platform. From gaming companies to furniture outlets, everyone is embracing renewable sources. And Xcel wants to be carbon-free by 2050.
If you’re not a customer of Xcel, they are a major power company for many areas. As I live in Denver, they are whose available in Colorado.
And it’s not like I can switch and go with someone else to power the grid. More on that in a moment…
What Does it Mean for Xcel to be Carbon Free?
As with many corporations nowadays, Xcel has seen the benefit of being more green. But it goes beyond simply helping the environment. In fact, there’s a lot of practical reasons why power companies should phase in carbon-free power.
But, what does that mean for both the company and its users?
Relying More on Cheaper Renewables
As the interest for renewables has increased, so has the investment into technology. This is because public interest drives innovation. Today, you can’t deny that there is a ton of public interest, especially from millennials and younger generations.
Things like solar arrays and wind tech is becoming cheaper every year. This means it is more likely to save companies like Xcel A LOT of money down the road.
Instead of maintaining a constant flow of coal or other fossil fuels, the company can save money due to the fact that sunlight and wind are freely available.
Revamping the Power Grid and Costs
Unfortunately, innovative technology for renewables also includes building arrays, farms, and revamping the power grid. This means money has to come out of someone’s pocket to fix everything from the power plant itself all the way to your house.
This means Xcel can tack on a surcharge to recuperate those expenses. Usually, surcharges like this are less than $10 per month. But, that also depends on what is needed.
For instance, Xcel was awarded a couple billion for it’s revamping project, which means it can only increase your bill so-much money per month.
Unfortunately, smaller and more rural areas don’t get a lot of the same protections. It all comes down to population density and how companies can collect funds.
For example, when Sterling, Colorado, built its new mandated water treatment plant, it vastly increased the monthly water bill of every household to well over $100. This is a huge jump from the $25 it was before.
Needless to say, customers have no choice but to pay this surcharge so Xcel can be carbon-free by the deadline.
Because, they wouldn’t want to take it away from executive salaries, shareholders, or anything of that nature…
Future Cheaper Bills? I Doubt It
You’d think that once the system becomes carbon-free that you’d expect to see drastically lower bills. After all, much of the expense of operating a power plant will no longer exist.
Coal, transportation, maintenance costs, and more are either non-existent or incredibly lower when maintaining a solar array or a wind farm.
However, that’s not how capitalism works. They can still charge the same amount as before while having fewer costs. This all comes down to making more money as a company.
And I know that this is a hypothetical situation at the moment. But, I have an educated suspicion that cheaper energy bills are not in our future. There is simply too much money to be made after the plants have been reconstructed.
Why Aren’t Power Companies Monopolies?
Monopolies in general are illegal. However, utility providers, such as electricity and water, are what’s called “natural monopolies.” These are legally mandated and enforced by government statutes.
The reason being that adding additional services of this type would be immensely convoluted and incredibly impractical.
For example, let’s say that there are three power providers in a location. How is power from company A going to get to your house as opposed to company B or C?
Without some kind of switch built into each home to prevent power from competitors, there’s no way to track where all of that energy goes. Well, outside of adding new, unique power lines for each energy provider.
If there was a more open market for energy, the streets would be lined with poles or massive underground cabling each time a new company cropped up. Needless to say, it would be quite the messy disaster.
This is outside of the immense cost for building and maintaining things like water, power, and sewage lines.
If you’re the owner of company A, you wouldn’t want companies B or C to use your power lines as you don’t want to create competition for yourself. So, companies B and C would have to run their own individual lines.
However, technology is catching up to how we control energy demands. And although it’s not a perfected system to govern over utility monopolies, we’re probably not very far away from seeing something more diverse.
On the other side of the coin, though, you have things like cooperatives that govern over local power. These are usually much smaller locales that take the place of the major providers.
Cooperative providers usually have a far smaller territory, though.
Does it Matter to You If Xcel Becomes Carbon Free?
Regardless how you feel about renewable energy, many big corporations are moving forward. But in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn’t affect how you get power at home. Just how much your bill is at the end of each month.
Personally, I am pro-renewable sources. And if I had $20k, I’d line my roof with solar panels and remove myself from the grid entirely.
Still, it’s nice to know that big corporations are taking notice in the environment and moving past archaic forms of technology…even if it’s too late for places like Greenland.
Michael has been interested in the practicality of living green for quite some time. He works closely with GreenGeeks Web Hosting as the Content Marketing Team Lead and an author of various articles.