ALLETE Unit & Xcel Energy Sign Wind Power Sale Agreement

ALLETE, Inc.'s (NYSE:ALE) wholly-owned subsidiary — ALLETE Clean Energy — inked a power sale agreement with Xcel Energy (NASDAQ:XEL) . Per the agreement, the subsidiary’s Viking wind facilities in southern Minnesota, with 12 megawatts (MW)capacity, will supply clean power for next 5 five years to Xcel Energy.

Wind Energy Projects

ALLETE Clean Energy focuses on developing, acquiring as well as operating clean and renewable energy projects. Currently, the subsidiary owns and operates in four states with approximately 535 MW of capacity wind energy generation. It is also engaged with the development of wind energy facilities to operate under long-term power sale agreements.

The additional wind projects, which are underway, will expand the company's footprint in six states and increase generation capacity to 720 MW.

Increasing Consumption of Wind Energy

In the past few years, renewable energy sources received wide acceptance that has boosted growth of the U.S. renewable energy industry.The utility sector is currently undergoing a transition as companies are gradually changing source of electricity production by replacing coal with cheap natural gas and renewable sources like wind as well as solar.

According to U.S. Energy Information Administration, the wind electricity consumption in U.S. will increase 4% to 2.673 quadrillion btu in 2019 from 2018.

Other utility companies like Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE:DUK) and NextEra Energy, Inc (NYSE:NEE) are also shifting their focus toward cleaner energy generation sources.

Zacks Rank & Price Performance

ALLETE currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

In the past 12 months, shares of ALLETE have gained 4.6%, against the industry’s decline of 1.5%.

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