64% of US States Could Supply 100% of Their Own Power From Renewable Energy, New Rules Project Shows

October 17th, 2009 by Susan Kraemer

Using just the resources that are currently commercially deployable; 31 of our 50 states, or 64% of US states could get 100% of their electricity from renewable sources in-state, and another 14 percent could generate 75 percent of their electricity in-state, according to a paper published by New Rules Project that focuses on the potential for local production.

In some ways, very local; which actually makes this a conservative estimate. For example:

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Solar. The New Rules Project study looked only rooftop solar potential, and not the obviously far larger utility-scale solar potential as the idea was to see what could be done with existing resources only in each state, and not adding transmission lines.

(Strangely; the authors inexplicably omit waste biomass or waste fueled electricity, like from landfill gas, cow power and sewage sludge as sources for producing electricity, that has tremendous potential. There is no peak poop, after all. )

But it still has a wealth of detailed data (2007), well presented in these graphs showing the relative resource for each state for

Pg 2 Wind

Pg 3 Off-shore Wind

Pg 4 Micro Hydro

Pg 5 Combined Heat & Power

Pg 6 Geothermal

Pg 7 EGS

Pg 8 Negawatts

Pg 9 Transmission Potential (my notes)

Pg 10 Relative Costs

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Tags: 100% by renewable energy, 60% of states, energy self-reliant, The New Rules Project

About the Author

Susan Kraemer writes at CleanTechnica, CSP-Today, PV-Insider , SmartGridUpdate, and GreenProphet. She has also been published at Ecoseed, NRDC OnEarth, MatterNetwork, Celsius, EnergyNow, and Scientific American. As a former serial entrepreneur in product design, Susan brings an innovator's perspective on inventing a carbon-constrained civilization: If necessity is the mother of invention, solving climate change is the mother of all necessities! As a lover of history and sci-fi, she enjoys chronicling the strange future we are creating in these interesting times. Follow Susan on Twitter @dotcommodity.

arta shokrollah

Hello,
I’m Iranian and I’m living in the Philippines with my family.
I have many plans for producing hydroelectric, but here there’s no forum to introduce my project.
Kindly send the Emails and addresses of these forums to me.
Thanks
Arta Shokrollah
Uncle B

Fact is America will go through a liquid energy to Electrical energy convulsion as fast as Asians demand their share of remaining light sweet crude oil in the world! Remember: Asians bid with gold backed, and production backed Yuan on world markets for all resources, oil included and will run prices up beyond what the weakened U.S. fiat, shystered, (See: http://www.viewzone.com/fakegold.html)

paper dollar can afford! America’s own satellite reconnaissance have provided no new drill targets in the whole world! Oil will skyrocket and very soon! Save for the wisdom of China to institute Electric Bullet Train networks to save on transportation costs (400% more efficient) the great oil wars are about to begin! The Saudis pray daily and pump sea water into their wells to get the last oil out to America, and Turkmenistan is already visited by Russia and China, only 350 miles away, with pipelines making Halliburton(Dubai)’s pipe-dream up Afghanistan already obsolete! All these factors and a very weak U.S. dollar, $1200.00 buys only 1 oz. gold today! will make for astoundingly expensive gasoline at the pumps and very soon. America will shift to Electric Power from Solar, Wind, Wave, Hydro, Tidal, Geothermal and Nuclear sources because it has all these. Unfortunately none of them can convert readily to liquid fuel energy, and all of them go to Electric energy quite well! America has just enough oil of her own to maintain military defenses, not more! The change-over from liquid fuel to Electric power is inevitable! Electricity is all America naturally has! Gentlemen! Charge your batteries, the plug ins are coming!
Uncle B

Fact is America will go through a liquid energy to Electrical energy convulsion as fast as Asians demand their share of remaining light sweet crude oil in the world! Remember: Asians bid with gold backed, and production backed Yuan on world markets for all resources, oil included and will run prices up beyond what the weakened U.S. fiat, shystered, (See: http://www.viewzone.com/fakegold.html)

paper dollar can afford! America’s own satellite reconnaissance have provided no new drill targets in the whole world! Oil will skyrocket and very soon! Save for the wisdom of China to institute Electric Bullet Train networks to save on transportation costs (400% more efficient) the great oil wars are about to begin! The Saudis pray daily and pump sea water into their wells to get the last oil out to America, and Turkmenistan is already visited by Russia and China, only 350 miles away, with pipelines making Halliburton(Dubai)’s pipe-dream up Afghanistan already obsolete! All these factors and a very weak U.S. dollar, $1200.00 buys only 1 oz. gold today! will make for astoundingly expensive gasoline at the pumps and very soon. America will shift to Electric Power from Solar, Wind, Wave, Hydro, Tidal, Geothermal and Nuclear sources because it has all these. Unfortunately none of them can convert readily to liquid fuel energy, and all of them go to Electric energy quite well! America has just enough oil of her own to maintain military defenses, not more! The change-over from liquid fuel to Electric power is inevitable! Electricity is all America naturally has! Gentlemen! Charge your batteries, the plug ins are coming!
Susan Kraemer

Tim, read the study I linked, then. It is about a 50 page pdf with multiple comparisons.

But the states wanted to know how much bang they could get for their buck IF THEY SPENT NOTHING on transmission, so this study was for how much renewable power was right in their own state’s ‘backyards’.

Like; if solar was all right on peoples roofs: what was the potential generation and cost?
Susan Kraemer

Tim, read the study I linked, then. It is about a 50 page pdf with multiple comparisons.

But the states wanted to know how much bang they could get for their buck IF THEY SPENT NOTHING on transmission, so this study was for how much renewable power was right in their own state’s ‘backyards’.

Like; if solar was all right on peoples roofs: what was the potential generation and cost?
Tim

I would like to see some comparisons between the costs to build and install the various generation sources. Then compare that to the cost of the new transmission lines. I also think that the cost of building new generation should be incorporated into the cost of generation.
Tim

I would like to see some comparisons between the costs to build and install the various generation sources. Then compare that to the cost of the new transmission lines. I also think that the cost of building new generation should be incorporated into the cost of generation.
Bman

I luv Canadians… don’t be a hater Ty.

The fact is, the potential or capability to produce renewable power is not the issue. The issue is getting producers to retrofit businesses to use or produce renewable energy. Most companies simply aren’t willing to loose profits to change their “system”. THAT is the problem we must overcome. As consumers, we must strong-arm gov’t and private business to do things “our way” or loose our business.
Bman

I luv Canadians… don’t be a hater Ty.

The fact is, the potential or capability to produce renewable power is not the issue. The issue is getting producers to retrofit businesses to use or produce renewable energy. Most companies simply aren’t willing to loose profits to change their “system”. THAT is the problem we must overcome. As consumers, we must strong-arm gov’t and private business to do things “our way” or loose our business.
Ty

I live in one of those ‘Northern States”. We get O% Of our electrons from Canada. So MD? STUFF IT!
Ty

I live in one of those ‘Northern States”. We get O% Of our electrons from Canada. So MD? STUFF IT!
Susan Kraemer

No, this study did not count out of state power currently, but potential for in-state power, only.

Thanks for your electrons though, Canada. We like the green ones.
Susan Kraemer

No, this study did not count out of state power currently, but potential for in-state power, only.

Thanks for your electrons though, Canada. We like the green ones.
MD

Being from BC Canada, I have to wonder how much of the power shown in the Northern States includes renewable from Canada.

BTW the last number I have are 50,120 million kWh exported from all of Canada (2007)

Now you need to realize, the USA gets a helluva bargain on this power while everyone in BC gets shafted – and the IPP’s get shafted by the Provincial Governments who in turn are shafted by back room deals Federally.

Sorry – had to add that so people realise where some of their electrical power comes from…
MD

Being from BC Canada, I have to wonder how much of the power shown in the Northern States includes renewable from Canada.

BTW the last number I have are 50,120 million kWh exported from all of Canada (2007)

Now you need to realize, the USA gets a helluva bargain on this power while everyone in BC gets shafted – and the IPP’s get shafted by the Provincial Governments who in turn are shafted by back room deals Federally.

Sorry – had to add that so people realise where some of their electrical power comes from…