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What is Renewable Energy?


Renewable energy sources can be replenished in a short period of time.
The five renewable sources used most often are:
  1. BIOMASS - including wood and wood waste, municipal solid waste, landfill and biogas, ethanol, and biodiesel
  2. water (hydropower)
  3. geothermal
  4. wind
  5. solar

What Role Does Renewable Energy Play in the United States?


The use of renewable energy is not new. More than 150 years ago, wood, which is one form of biomass, supplied up to 90 percent of our energy needs. As the use of coal, petroleum, and natural gas expanded, the United States became less reliant on wood as an energy source. Today, we are looking again at renewable resources to find new ways to use them to help meet our energy needs. Overall consumption from renewable sources in the United States totaled 6.8 quads (quadrillion Btu) in 2007, or about 7 percent of all energy used nationally. Consumption from renewable sources was at its highest point in 1997, at about 7.2 quads.

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