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USA govt report – renewable energy outstrips nuclear

Renewable Energy Consumption Passes Nuclear, Earth Techling, by Steve Duda, August 9th, 2011 Renewable energy consumption in the United States recently exceeded current and historical consumption levels for nuclear energy, a government study reports.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, during the first quarter of this year a combination of nuclear outages related to plants shutting down for refueling and the start of the high water season for hydropower generation caused the shift in consumption. Seasonal variations in renewable energy, said the EIA,  ”are dominated by the annual cycle of water availability for hydroelectric power production. Hydropower constitutes a significant yet highly variable portion of total renewable energy consumption, accounting for 31% of renewable energyconsumption in 2010.”

Joining this is a multi-year upward trend in renewable consumption driven by increasing consumption of biofuels and wind capacity additions. In the context of this study, renewable energy consumption is defined beyond electric power generation from hydro, wind, solar, and geothermalsources. Sources including biofuels for transportation (such as ethanol and biodiesel) and biomass (such as wood and wood wastes) for space heating and industrial steam production as well as for electric power generation are counted as renewable resources……http://www.earthtechling.com/2011/08/renewable-energy-consumption-passes-nuclear/

August 11, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | renewable, USA