Census Bureau reports renewable power generation growing
According to new U.S. Census Bureau statistics, revenues for electric power generation industries that use renewable energy resources rose 49.0 percent from $6.6 billion in 2007 to $9.8 billion in 2012, and include hydroelectric, wind, geothermal, biomass, solar and tidal energy.
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"As industries evolve, so does the Census Bureau to continue to collect relevant data that informs America's business decisions," Census Bureau Director John H. Thompson said. "Industries that use renewable energy resources are still relatively small, but they are rapidly growing."
The electric power generation industry saw an overall decline of 1.2 percent in revenues from $121 billion to $119.5 billion between 2007 and 2012, according to the Census, with the decline driven by fossil fuel generation, which saw revenues decrease from $85.4 billion to $79.7 billion, or 6.7 percent, during the same five-year period.
Revenues for wind generation totaled $5 billion in 2012, the highest revenues among the industries using renewable energy resources, followed by hydroelectric with revenues of $2.4 billion. Geothermal had revenues of just under $1 billion, followed by biomass, with $934.6 million in revenues, solar, with $472.4 million, and other electric power generation (tidal energy), with $59.0 million.
Fossil fuel and nuclear electric power generation are still the major revenue sources of the electric power generation industry, comprising 66.7 percent ($79.7 billion) and 25.1 percent ($29.9 billion), respectively, of total revenues, according to the Census.
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