Xcel Energy is partnering to build a solar power plant in Colorado using solar panels that tilt toward the sun as it moves across the sky.

The 17-megawatt power plant will be the second-largest "solar tracking" facility in North America, according to a press release from SunPower, a solar manufacturer that is partnering with Xcel on the project.

Solar tracking systems generate up to 30 percent more energy per land area than conventional systems and limit land-use requirements.

Xcel Energy is the nation's fifth-largest utility provider of solar power. Much of that investment has been in Colorado, not Minnesota, because of that state's aggressive incentives to encourage solar power.