Renewables Articles
Renewable Energy Status. September 2, 2007
Renewable Energy Status
The EIA has just issued its status report for renewable energy for 2006.
Net generation in KiloWattHours (kWh) is the most accurate measurement for determining the contribution made by renewables. Other measures, such as BTU consumption, require conversions that distort the basic information.
The results for 2006 are shown below.
Hydro-electric continues to provide 75% of all renewable energy produced in the United States.
Wind has increased significantly, but still provides less than 1% of U.S. electricity.
Other renewable sources have remained essentially unchanged since 2002, except for solar that declined by 10% in 2006 from earlier levels.
|
2006 |
||
|
Thousand kWh |
% Total |
|
| Total Renewables |
385,009,378 |
9.50% |
|
Biomass |
55,574,081 |
1.37% |
|
Waste |
16,165,384 |
0.40% |
|
Landfill Gas |
5,509,189 |
0.14% |
|
MSW Biogenic |
8,652,039 |
0.21% |
|
Other Biomass |
2,004,157 |
0.05% |
|
Wood and Derived Fuels |
39,408,697 |
0.97% |
|
Geothermal |
14,842,067 |
0.37% |
|
Hydro Conventional |
288,306,061 |
7.11% |
|
Solar/ PV |
505,415 |
0.01% |
| Wind |
25,781,754 |
0.64% |
| Total US Net Generation |
4,052,968,000 |
100% |
Source: U. S. Energy Information Agency
September 2, 2007
TSAugust
EU Ok’s Nuclear as Renewable Energy.
The European Union has pledged that 20% of its energy will come from renewable sources by 2020.
Simultaneously it has agreed Nuclear Energy can be included as a renewable energy source.
Renewable energy targets will be determined on a country by country basis which will result in political negotiations, but countries can include nuclear when calculating the amount of energy that comes from renewable sources. This has been especially important to France and Czechoslovakia.
Poland’s President, Kaczynski said; "no country will be forced to adopt measures in this field without its consent." Poland currently obtains only 5.5% of its energy from renewable sources.
In commenting on the EU agreement, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said; "We have grown up since the days of communism when we were given five year plans. We don't want to go back to that situation."
Many states in the U.S. have made commitments, in the form of renewable portfolio standards, as to the percentage of electricity that must come from renewable sources. The intent has been to force utilities to adopt wind or solar power.
If states also adopt nuclear as a renewable energy source, it will reduce the cost to consumers of renewable portfolio standards and result in base load power with no CO2 emissions.
March 18, 2007
Renewable Portfolio Standards.
Fourteen
other stateshave
enacted some form of RPS legislation. Voluntary Green energy
programs have been in place in many states but consumers have
generally not been willing to pay the higher cost associated
with Green energy.In
Mandated programs force the issue since the added cost of renewable energy will be included in all consumers’ monthly energy bills.
Renewables
typically cost more than traditionally generated power but a
group in Colorado claims that RPS will result in a 31
cent per month savings in the typical consumer energy bill. This
study is very optimistic for the following reasons.
-
It assumes that windpower will displace natural gas and that natural gas prices will remain very high. (Most electricity in
-
The study also assumes that windpower capital costs will decline by over 35% from today's level to reach $750/kW by 2023 with advances in wind turbine technology. This is highly unlikely in that most of the technology used in windpower is old technology that has been cost reduced over the past 100 years. The rotors and controls represent the best opportunity for cost improvements but they represent a small portion of total cost. Lower capital costs can only occur by using larger units but the largest production unit today is 2.5MW and larger prototype units are slated for ocean installations. Terrain frequently dictates the size of the units.
-
If the expired production tax credit is not extended, the savings from the study evaporate.
-
The study assumes a capacity factor of 35% and increasing to 40% but the best capacity factor achieved thus far at Colorado’s two wind farms is 26%: In other words, the units will produce much less electricity than assumed in the study.
If
renewables were indeed less expensive than conventional
alternatives, why mandate their purchase and set a minimum
market share? The PUC could eliminate the 2.5c/kWh premium for
green energy and see whether consumers would opt for green power
over traditional power.
The
map shows the states that have adopted some form of
RPS.
February 22, 2004
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