Renewable Energy Neck-In-Neck with Nuclear Power
EACH NOW PROVIDE 11% OF
DOMESTIC ENERGY PRODUCTION
BUT NON-HYDRO RENEWABLES GROW
11.5%
WHILE NUCLEAR OUTPUT DROPS
For Immediate Release: December 30, 2010 Contact: Ken Bossong, 301-270-6477 x.11
Washington DC -- According to the most recent
issue of the "Monthly Energy Review" by the U.S. Energy Information
Administration (EIA), "nuclear electric power
accounted for 11% of primary energy production and renewable energy
accounted for 11% of primary energy production" during
the first nine months of 2010 (the most
recent period for which data have been released).
More
specifically, renewable energy sources (i.e., biomass/biofuels,
geothermal, solar, water, and wind) accounted for 10.9% of domestic
energy production and increased by 5.7% compared to the same period in
2009. Meanwhile, nuclear power accounted for 11.4% of domestic energy
production but provided 0.5% less energy than a year earlier.
Among the
renewable energy sources, biomass and biofuels accounted for 51.95%,
hydropower for 31.50%, wind for 10.52%, geothermal for 4.65%, and solar
for 1.38%. Comparing the first three-quarters of 2010 against the same
period in 2009, hydropower declined by 5.2% but geothermal expanded by
1.8%, solar grew by 2.4%, biomass/biofuels increased by 10.0%, and wind
grew by 26.7%; combined, non-hydro renewables expanded by 11.5%.
Preliminary
data also show that fossil fuels accounted for 78% of primary energy
production. Overall, U.S. primary energy production rose by 2% compared
with the first nine months of 2009.
“Members of the incoming Congress are
proposing to slash cost-effective funding for rapidly expanding
renewable energy technologies while foolishly plowing ever-more federal
dollars into the nuclear power black hole,†said Ken Bossong,
Executive Director of the SUN DAY Campaign. “The numbers clearly show
this would be betting on the obvious loser while ignoring the clearly
emerging winner in the energy race.â€
And according to EIA’s latest "Electric
Power Monthly," renewable energy sources
accounted for 10.18% of U.S. electrical generation during the first
three-quarters of 2010. Compared to the same period in 2009, renewables
- including hydropower - grew by 2.2%. While conventional hydropower
dropped by 5.2%, non-hydro renewable used in electrical generation
expanded by 16.8% with geothermal growing by 4.9%, biomass by 5.5%, wind
by 27.3%, and solar by 47.1%. Non-hydro renewables accounted for 3.9% of
total electrical generation from January 1 - September 30, 2010 -- up
from 3.5% the year before.
# #
# # # # # #
The U.S. Energy Information Administration released its most recent
"Monthly Energy Review" on December 22, 2010.
It can be found at:
http://www.eia.gov/emeu/mer/overview.html.
The relevant charts from which the data above are extrapolated
are Tables 1.1 and 1.2. EIA
released its most recent "Electric Power Monthly" on December 17, 2010;
see:
http://www.eia.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/epm_sum.html.
The relevant charts are Tables ES1.A and ES1.B.
The quotation in the first paragraph of
this release was originally posted by the EIA on its web page
accompanying the release of the “Monthly Energy Review†but has
since been removed without explanation.
The original EIA posting can be found at the following two sites:
http://ehsmanager.blogspot.com/2010/12/eias-primary-report-of-recent-energy.html
http://www.akbizmag.com/from-our-elected-officials.html.
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The SUN DAY Campaign is a non-profit
research and educational organization founded in 1993 to promote
sustainable energy technologies as cost-effective alternatives to
nuclear power and fossil fuels. |