Renewable Energy Has Grown a Ton Since 1970 in the US, but…

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David Roberts of Grist recently shared a couple of interesting graphics (in particular, when compared) from Black & Veatch. Here are Roberts’ succinct notes on renewable energy projects visible on the first map (below), which is of renewable energy projects in the U.S. up to 1970: “One, there weren’t very many! Two, they weren’t very big. And three, they were all biomass. In other words, in 1970, renewable energy in the U.S. was effectively nonexistent.”

renewable energy US 1970

And some of Roberts’ apt comments on the next, much different graphic: “The point the B&V analyst takes from that is that Solyndra is a sideshow. It’s not going to stop the march of renewables in the U.S. And that’s undoubtedly true. The point I take, of course, is that this growth is impressive but not nearly fast enough. In 10 years, I want the gray U.S. map to be invisible beneath a blanket of multi-colored dots. Get on it, people!”

renewable energy US 2011
Click to Enlarge

I don’t think there’s much to add — renewable energy growth has been tremendous in the U.S. in the past few decades, but it needs to be MUCH MORE tremendous in the coming decades. (Have you gone renewable yet? Have you pushed your Congressman to support renewable energy yet?)


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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

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