U.S. Renewable Energy Usage Trends Upward as Overall Power Usage Declines

Courtesy of the Energy Information Administration’s Office of Coal, Nuclear, Electric and Alternate Fuels.

Well it’s nice to know that real progress is happening in the renewable energy industry and not just a lot of speculative talk!

Consumer consumption grew by seven percent between 2007 and 2008, despite a two percent decline in total United States energy consumption, according to a newly released report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The total renewable energy consumption increased by 487 trillion Btu (British Thermal Unit) to 7, 301 trillion Btu.

The two biggest consumers of renewable energy were the electric power and industrial sectors, though the transportation sector is starting to take a bigger piece of the pie.

Looking at it on a longer timescale, from 2004 to 2008, electric power accounted for 51 percent of renewable energy consumption and industrial 28 percent, down from 56 and 30 percent respectively, according to the EIA. During the same period, the transportation sector’s consumption share grew from five to 11 percent.

The EIA cited statistics from the Renewable Fuels Association that the number of ethanol refineries in the U.S. more than doubled in number from 81 in January 2005 to 170 in January 2009. These refineries were responsible for producing 220 million barrels (778 trillion Btu) in 2008, which was up from 81 million barrels (287 trillion Btu) in 2004.

The hands down winner though last year for supplying the most renewable energy was the wind industry, increasing from 372 billion kilowatthours in 2007 to 4,110 billion kilowatthours in 2008- a five percent increase.

By the end of 2008, wind provided 1.3 percent of the total U.S. generation from all energy sources, up from .04 percent in 2004. The EIA largely attributes this to the “dramatic expansion in the wind capacity in the last few years.”

EIA statistics calculated that some of the largest annual increases in wind capacity (in megawatts) were for:

• Texas: 2,473
• Iowa: 1,491
• North Dakota: 369
• Wyoming: 339
• Wisconsin: 312
• Kansas: 302

Three states, not on the list, that reported having utility-scale wind capacity for the first time were: Indiana, New Hampshire, and Utah.

Finally showing the least year-to-year growth from 2007 to 2008 was the conventional hydroelectric power industry, though it’s still by far the country’s largest provider of renewable energy. It stayed about the same at 248 billion kilowatthours during this time period.

Reader commentary and input is always welcomed!