Power Sector Opportunities Reducing Carbon Dioxide Emissions Minnesota

A World Resources Institute (WRI) fact sheet analyzing how Minnesota can utilize existing policies and infrastructure to reduce power plant CO2 emissions by 2020 to meet or exceed potential EPA standards.

• WRI analysis indicates that Minnesota has the potential to reduce its CO2 emissions by 31 percent below 2011 levels by the year 2020. This level of reduction would meet or exceed hypothetical moderately ambitious EPA power plant emissions standards, which WRI estimated would require reductions between 24 and 30 percent below 2011 levels by 2020.
• Existing policy-based opportunities for CO2 reduction include meeting renewable energy standards—which require Xcel Energy to reach 30 percent renewables by 2020 and other utilities to reach 25 percent by 2025, plus a 1.5 percent solar requirement by 2020—which could reduce emissions by 5 percent below 2011 levels in 2020. Additionally, meeting existing energy efficiency standards could lower emissions by 14 percent in 2020 compared to a scenario without the standard.
• Infrastructure-based opportunities for reduction include increasing the utilization of combined cycle (NGCC) natural gas plants to 75 percent, which could reduce CO2 emissions by 30 percent below 2011 levels in 2020. Other options include increasing coal plant efficiency by 2.5 percent to reduce emissions by 1 percent below 2011 levels by 2020, and expanding combined heat and power (CHP) systems at manufacturing facilities, hospitals, and universities.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Power Sector Opportunities Reducing Carbon Dioxide Emissions Minnesota. https://www.wri.org/research/power-sector-opportunities-reducing-carbon-dioxide-emissions-minnesota

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Power Sector Opportunities Reducing Carbon Dioxide Emissions Minnesota. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/power-sector-opportunities-reducing-carbon-dioxide-emissions-minnesota.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Power Sector Opportunities Reducing Carbon Dioxide Emissions Minnesota |url=https://www.wri.org/research/power-sector-opportunities-reducing-carbon-dioxide-emissions-minnesota |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendpower, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Power Sector Opportunities Reducing Carbon Dioxide Emissions Minnesota}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/power-sector-opportunities-reducing-carbon-dioxide-emissions-minnesota}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }