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Growth of renewable energy in USA

Who uses renewable power, in one map, Washington Post,  by Brad Plumer, 05/02/2012  We keep hearing that renewable energy is booming in the United States, but where is it? Here’s a handy map from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showing how much electricity each state gets from wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal (but not hydropower):….

Why do some states do better than others? Policy helps. Some 30 states have laws that require utilities to get a certain portion of their power from renewable sources. (The Southeast is the big exception here.) The strictness of the laws varies from state to state, but by and large, states with stricter standards get more renewables. But simply having natural resources helps, too: Idaho, Wyoming, and South Dakota don’t have strict standards, but there’s so much wind up there that turbines are going up anyway….. Meanwhile, the EIA notes, if you include hydropower, some states in the Pacific Northwest look even better. Idaho gets 93 percent of its electricity from hydroelectric dams. Oregon gets 78 percent and Washington 82 percent….  The EIA has data on total renewable generation, not including hydropower, here (Excel file). The top states in 2012 on this metric were:

1. Texas
2. California
3. Iowa
4. Minnesota
5. Washington
6. Illinois     http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/where-americas-renewable-energy-is-in-one-map/2012/05/02/gIQAHNpPwT_blog.html

May 3, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | renewable, USA