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WASHINGTON, DC, US, October 5, 2005 (Refocus
Weekly)
The consumption of wind energy in the United
States has increased 500% over the past 15 years, while the use of
solar has increased only 50%, according to latest data from the
Department of Energy.
DOE’s Energy Information Administration has disaggregated the
data for wind and for solar in its latest ‘Monthly Energy Review,’
ending the practice of combining the two sources. Most of the
consumption for both technologies is included in the electric power
sector, and the national production and consumption figures are
almost identical.
Consumption of wind last year was 143 trillion Btu (t-Btu), compared
with 29 t-Btu in 1990 and 57 t-Btu in 2000. It jumped to 105 t-Btu
in 2002, rising to 115 t-Btu in 2003 and 143 t-Btu last year. In the
first six months of this year, wind has provided 80 t-Btu, compared
with 79 t-Btu during the same period of 2004.
Solar provided 4 t-Btu of primary consumption for the country’s
power sector in 1990, which increased slowly to 6 t-Btu by 2001
where it has remained steady. Geothermal has declined from 326 t-Btu
in 1990 to 302 t-Btu last year, while biomass has increased from 317
t-Btu to 508 t-Btu, and hydro has dropped from 3,014 t-Btu to 2,673
t-Btu last year.
By comparison, coal provided 16,261 t-Btu for the power sector in
1990, which grew to 20,268 t-Btu last year, while natural gas went
from 3,332 to 5,486 t-Btu, and petroleum dropped from 1,289 to 1,195
t-Btu.
In total energy consumption, the 6.12 quadrillion Btu (quad) from
all renewables becomes much smaller compared with the 22.4 quads
from coal last year, 23.1 from natural gas, 40.6 quads from
petroleum and 8.2 quads from nuclear. The national share is 6.1% of
consumption.
In total, the United States produced 70.5 quad of energy last year,
but consumed 100.3 quad.
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