Is it feasible to supply 10 percent of U.S. electricity with non-hydro renewable sources by 2020?
The United States is blessed by an abundance of renewable energy resources from the sun, wind, and earth. Combined, the technical potential of major renewable technologies could provide more than five times the electricity this country needs.1 Good wind areas, covering only 6 percent of the lower 48-state land area, could theoretically supply more than 1.3 times the total current national demand for electricity. A 12,000- square-mile area in Nevada could produce enough electricity from the sun to meet annual national demand. We have large untapped geothermal and bioenergy (energy crops and plant waste) resources. Of course, there are limits to how much of this potential can be used economically, because of competing land uses, competing costs from other energy sources, and limits to the transmission system, but there is more than enough to supply 10 percent, or even 20 percent, of our nation’s electricity needs.
