A new law puts Minnesota at the forefront of the renewable energy push.

Thursday, Governor Tim Pawlenty will sign into law a measure renewable resource advocates call “aggressive.”

The law requires all utility companies to be using renewable resources for a quarter of their production by 2025. The only company not required to this is XCel Energy, who will be held to a higher standard of 30 percent by 2020.

States around the nation are reaching for renewable resource solutions. Colorado, for example, put forth a 20 percent by 2020 requirement. Other states, such as New Hampshire, have taken a page from Minnesota’s book to consider the 25 by 25 requirement.

Estimates from 2004 put Minnesota’s power dependency on coal at about 50 percent of production. Only 8 percent of power production in Minnesota came from renewable resources in the same year.

The new bill sets a goal for the state’s power companies to use renewables for at least 10 percent of their production by 2015.

Nationally, advocates are pushing Congress to set goals similar to those here in Minnesota. By promoting solar power, biodiesel and wind farms, those seeking more renewable resources in national energy say utilities across the country could be focused on the 25 by 25 goal.