Renewable resources can’t really deliver enough energy to replace all the power plants we need, can they?
Given appropriate policy and financial support at all governmental levels, renewable energy resources, energy conservation, and improvements in efficiency could fill most of the gap. The potential of U.S. renewable energy is vast. A recent Department of Energy (DOE) report, for example, concludes that wind could provide 20 percent of U.S. electricity by 2030, avoiding construction of 80 gigawatts (GW) of new coal capacity.7 Almost all regions of the country have useful solar resources, according to the DOE’s Energy Information Agency (EIA).8 Solar collectors on parking lots and rooftops alone could provide most of the U.S. electrical energy supply. Plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles could become a low-cost means of electricity storage. New solar technologies, such as string ribbon and thin film, are lowering the cost of solar photovoltaics (PV).9 DOE projected last year that annual production of solar PV will increase almost 12-fold in five years and reduce the price to competitive l
Related Questions
- Why is Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) amending the Terms and Conditions of the ecoENERGY for Renewable Power (ecoENERGY RP) program at this time?
- Renewable resources can’t really deliver enough energy to replace all the power plants we need, can they?
- What is the efficiency of most power plants that use thermal energy?
