Power generation from renewables surpasses nuclear
By Contributor
By Thomas Schueneman, Global Warming is Real
The latest issue of the Monthly Energy Review published by the US Energy Information Administration, electric power generation from renewable sources has surpassed production from nuclear sources, and is now “closing in on oil,” says Ken Bossong, executive director of the Sun Day Campaign.
In the first quarter of 2011 renewable energy sources accounted for 11.73 per cent of US domestic energy production.
Renewable sources include solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, biomass/biofuel. As of the first quarter of 2011, energy production from these sources was 5.65 per cent more than production from nuclear.
As Bossing further explains from the report, renewable sources are closing the gap with generation from oil-fired sources, with renewable source equal to 77.15 per cent of total oil based generation.
For all sectors, including transportation, thermal, and electrical generation, renewable energy production grew just over 15 per cent in the first quarter of 2011 compared to the first quarter of 2010, and fully 25 per cent over first quarter 2009.
In a break-down of renewable sources, biomass/biofuel accounted for a bit more than 48 per cent, hydro for 35.41 per cent, wind for nearly 13 per cent, geothermal 2.45 per cent, and solar at 1.16 per cent.
Looking at just the electrical generation sector, renewable sources, including hydro, accounted for nearly 13 per cent of net US electrical generation in the first quarter of 2011, up from 10.31 per cent for the same quarter last year. Non-hydro renewable sources accounted for 4.74 per cent of net US production.
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