Consumption of solar and geothermal drop in the U

WASHINGTON, DC, US, 2004-08-25 (Refocus Weekly)

Consumption of solar and geothermal energies in the United States declined last year, according to the Department of Energy.

Solar energy dropped to 0.063 quadrillion Btu in 2003, down from 0.064 quads in 2002, according to preliminary data in the report, ‘Renewable Energy Trends’ produced by DOE’s Energy Information Administration. Solar consumption has been declining steadily since 1999, when it was 0.069 quads, dropping to 0.066 in 2000, 0.065 in 2001 and 0.064 in 2002.

The report notes that consumption of solar thermal has declined while solar photovoltaic use has expanded.

Geothermal also continued a long-term decline, dropping to 0.314 quads last year from 0.328 in 2002, which was down from 0.331 quads in 1999. EIA combines geothermal electricity with earth energy for space conditioning applications, but the latter doubled its consumption in 2003 to 0.029 quads. The agency has noted that consumption of non-commercial off-grid green heat technologies, which includes earth energy heat pumps, solar thermal water heaters and wood stoves, cannot be tracked as accurately as green power consumption.

Overall, renewable energy consumption in the U.S. rose to 6.131 quads in 2003 from 5.946 quads in 2002, although this was down from 6.587 quads in 1999, the report notes. Biomass is the largest contributor at 2.865 quads, up from the 2002 level of 2.773 but down slightly from the 2.873 quads in 1999. Conventional hydroelectric was next at 2.779 quads last year, up from 2.675 quads in 2002 but down from 3.268 in 1999.

Wind energy accounted for 0.108 quads last year, up from 0.105 quads in 2002 and 0.046 quads in 1999.

Total energy consumption in 2003 was 98 quads, of which petroleum was 39 quads, coal was 23, natural gas was 22 and nuclear was 7.8 quads.

Overall, renewables contributed 6% of national energy. At 6.1 quads, the 2003 consumption was “essentially” the same as it was in 1989, the report notes.

Renewables peaked in the mid-1990s at 7.1 quads, or 7.5% of total energy, mainly from hydropower which peaked in 1997 and has declined since. Industrial and residential biomass consumption have declined slowly, while geothermal output has remained static.

“Wind and solar photovoltaics have expanded rapidly in recent years, but their share of the total is so small that this growth has not affected the renewable industry trend significantly,” it adds.

Generation accounted for 4.1 quads, or two-thirds of total renewables consumption last year, with 90% coming from biomass and hydropower. Green power generation amounted to 360 billion kWh, up 2% from 2002, and the net addition of 560 MW of capacity last year included 438 MW of wind and 110 MW of biomass.
The industry says the increase for wind was closer to 1,700 MW, but the report says some new plants are not yet reporting to EIA. At 97,000 MW of capacity, renewables provided 10% of total net summer electric generating capacity last year.

Click here for more info...

Visit http://www.sparksdata.co.uk/refocus/ for your international energy focus!!