Xcel Energy's Sherco coal plant in Minnesota is giving way to utility-scale solar and battery…

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

• Sherco Coal Plant Converts to Solar, Storage: Xcel Energy's Sherco generating station in Becker, Minnesota, is being replaced with solar generation and battery storage, alongside a new transmission line to deliver the clean energy — another coal-to-renewables conversion driven by cost fundamentals. Read More: CleanTechnica.
• Underground Flywheel Storage Targets U.S. Market: Qnetic is developing underground flywheel energy storage systems designed to support wind and solar integration, offering longer-duration storage with reduced dependence on overseas battery supply chains. Read More: CleanTechnica.
• China Blows Past Renewable Targets Again: China continues to exceed its wind and solar deployment goals while falling short on nuclear capacity targets, widening the global cost gap that shapes U.S. manufacturing competitiveness. Read More: CleanTechnica.
• 18 State AGs Press Wind Farm Freeze Challenge: The coalition challenging the Trump administration's moratorium on federal wind energy permits now includes 18 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia, with briefing deadlines approaching in federal court.
• Brookfield's $7B Aypa Deal Reshapes Storage Market: Brookfield Asset Management's acquisition of battery storage developer Aypa Power from Blackstone — reported Friday at a $7 billion valuation — continues to reverberate as the largest pure-play storage deal on record.

Solar & Storage

The Sherco generating station in Becker, Minnesota, is one of the state's largest coal plants, and its ongoing conversion to solar and battery storage marks another milestone in the Midwest's coal-to-clean transition. Xcel Energy, the plant's owner, is pairing the new renewable generation with a dedicated transmission line — a critical detail for a region where interconnection bottlenecks have stalled projects for years. The approach of building generation and transmission together, rather than forcing solar developers to wait in a multi-year interconnection queue, could offer a template for other utilities sitting on retiring coal assets with existing grid connections.

That grid connection is the buried lede. Coal plants come with something most greenfield solar sites don't: substations, switchyards, and high-voltage lines already rated to move large volumes of power. Reusing that infrastructure can shave years and tens of millions of dollars off development timelines. For developers eyeing similar opportunities, the Sherco model is worth studying — particularly as FERC's interconnection reforms have yet to meaningfully clear the national queue backlog, which exceeded 2,600 GW at last count.

The conversion continues even as the Trump administration has vocally championed coal and attempted to slow renewable deployment through permitting constraints and the ongoing wind energy moratorium. But utility-scale solar paired with 4-hour battery storage now routinely underbids new gas generation on a levelized cost basis, and state utility commissions — not the White House — ultimately approve resource plans. Minnesota's regulators approved Xcel's clean energy transition plan before the current administration took office, and the project has proceeded on schedule.

Meanwhile, the storage sector is absorbing the implications of Brookfield's $7 billion acquisition of Aypa Power, announced Thursday. That deal valued Aypa's portfolio at a premium that surprised even bullish analysts, and it effectively validates battery storage as a standalone asset class capable of attracting institutional capital at scale. Developers with storage-heavy pipelines may find financing conversations easier in the weeks ahead. Separately, Qnetic's underground flywheel technology — designed to be buried rather than built on surface pads — offers a domestic alternative to lithium-ion systems that could appeal to developers navigating community opposition to visible energy infrastructure. The flywheel systems promise longer duration than conventional batteries and avoid the supply-chain vulnerabilities tied to Chinese lithium processing, a selling point that resonates across the political spectrum.

Wind Energy

No new wind project announcements landed over the weekend, but the legal battle over the Trump administration's moratorium on federal wind energy permits is building toward a critical phase. The coalition of 18 state attorneys general challenging the freeze — which halted permitting for both onshore wind projects on federal land and offshore wind leases — filed an expanded brief last week arguing that the administration exceeded its executive authority. The states contend the moratorium has frozen billions of dollars in private investment and threatens grid reliability in regions counting on contracted wind capacity.

The case, pending in the D.C. Circuit, could produce a ruling before year-end. For wind developers, the stakes are straightforward: projects with federal land components or offshore leases remain in limbo, and every month of delay adds financing costs and erodes power purchase agreement economics. Onshore developers working exclusively on private land in states like and are largely unaffected, which has widened a geographic split in where new wind capacity gets built. Read More: Texas, Iowa.

Policy & Markets

China's continued overperformance on renewable energy targets — wind and solar installations are running well ahead of the government's own five-year plan — carries direct consequences for U.S. manufacturers and policymakers. The sheer volume of Chinese panel and turbine production continues to push global equipment prices down, which benefits U.S. developers buying hardware but undercuts the domestic manufacturing buildout that both parties have championed. Canadian Solar's new $1 billion heterojunction cell factory in , which opened its first phase last week, will compete directly against Chinese cells that cost less to produce. Read More: Indiana.

The tension between cheap imports and domestic industrial policy is likely to intensify. The Trump administration's tariff regime on Chinese solar components remains in effect, and Commerce Department reviews of Southeast Asian transshipment could tighten further. Developers placing equipment orders for 2027 deliveries face a pricing environment shaped by these cross-currents: global oversupply pulling prices down, tariffs pushing them up, and domestic content bonuses under the Inflation Reduction Act — still technically on the books but under active congressional review — adding another variable.

On the state level, the coal-to-solar conversions unfolding in Minnesota and elsewhere reflect a broader reality that federal rhetoric has not reversed. Utility integrated resource plans filed across the country in 2025 and 2026 continue to favor renewables-plus-storage over new gas builds in most markets. Even in states with Republican governors who signed the Trump administration's Ratepayer Protection Pledge last week, the pledge targets data center cost allocation — not renewable energy deployment itself.

LOOKING AHEAD

• D.C. Circuit Wind Moratorium Ruling: The 18-state legal challenge to the federal wind permitting freeze moves toward oral arguments; a decision could unlock or further delay billions in stalled wind investment before Q4.
• DOE Grant Cancellation Fallout: Court filings revealing political motives behind the cancellation of 284 Department of Energy grants could trigger injunctions; affected clean energy projects are watching for a judge's response in the coming weeks.
• Maine Community Solar Credits Dispute: The lawsuit filed by 1,800 community solar subscribers who lost billing credits heads toward an initial hearing, with implications for subscriber protections in community solar programs nationwide.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Coal plants keep converting to solar and storage because the economics demand it, and no amount of political headwind has changed the math that utility commissions use to approve resource plans.