11% of U.S. Energy Production from Renewable Resources in 2010

April 12th, 2011 by Zachary Shahan

The fossil fuel industry and the politicians and pseudo-scientists it buys are fond of saying that renewable energy can’t power the world. That claim will eventually be proven ridiculous. For now, though, many may be surprised to know that renewable resources already account nearly 11% of U.S. energy production.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently reported that U.S. energy production from renewable energy sources such as biomass/biofuels, hydro, geothermal, solar, water, and wind energy rose to 10.92% in 2010. Nuclear energy’s share dropped a bit to 11.26%.

Here’s more info on how energy production was split up within the renewable resource category:

biomass/biofuels — 51.98%

hydropower — 30.66%

wind — 11.29%

geothermal — 4.68%

solar — 1.38%

Looking at how energy production from these sources changed from 2009 to 2010, the EIA reported that:

wind energy increased by 28%

biomass/biofuels increased by 10%

solar and geothermal increased by 4% each

hydropower dropped by 6%

Only Looking at Electricity

Transportation and electricity are two different animals. Just focusing on the electricity front, here is some similar information.

Power sources other than hydro (i.e. wind, biomass, geothermal, and solar) increased 16.5% in 2010 when it came to electrical generation. In total, they accounted for 4.08% of net U.S. electrical generation. When including hydro, renewable resources accounted for 10.32%.

How was total electrical generation split amongst non-hydro renewable energy sources?

wind accounted for 56.3%

biomass for 33.6%

geothermal for 9.3%

solar for 0.8%.

How much did electrical generation change for each specific energy source?

solar increased by 45.8%

wind by 28.1%

geothermal by 4.4%

biomass by 3.7%

Nuclear provided 19.59% of electrical generation in 2010, down from 20.22% in 2009.

Of course, as I’ve already reported a number of times, expect wind and solar power to continue growing fast in the U.S.

Comments or related data to share?

h/t Renewable Energy World

Related Stories:

Photo via kevindooley









Appreciate CleanTechnica’s originality? Consider becoming a CleanTechnica member, supporter, or ambassador — or a patron on Patreon.

Sign up for our free daily newsletter or weekly newsletter to never miss a story.

Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Latest Cleantech Talk Episode