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The polluting coal plant is on its way out, scheduled for retirement in the next five years. It's generated billions of dollars' worth of electricity in its 50-year life, but the most valuable of its parts is the plug " how it connects to the grid that powers our homes.

Instead of letting it go to waste as the fossil fuel plant closes, Xcel Energy is going to leave it plugged in to connect the largest solar project in the Upper Midwest, and one of the largest in the entire country, directly to the grid.