Editor’s notes: 1) As stated near the bottom of this post, these figures don’t include small-scale and commercial-scale solar, a big piece of the solar pie. 2) The original title of this article was “Natural gas, renewables dominate electric capacity additions in first half of 2012” — it was … [continued]
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Outlook 2012. Analysis included in the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Annual Energy Outlook 2012 shows that extending and expanding certain energy-related policies beyond the current sunset dates and current implementing regulations incorporated in the AEO2012 Reference case could reduce projected national energy consumption in 2035 … [continued]
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Residential Energy Consumption Survey. Note: Excludes the 11.2 million households without a vehicle. The housing stock in the United States could support significant numbers of plug-in electric vehicles. Of households that own at least one car, an estimated 49% (49.6 million housing units) park within 20 feet … [continued]
Greenhouse gases trap heat from the sun and warm the planet’s surface. Of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, the majority are related to energy consumption, and most of those are carbon dioxide. From 1990 to 2011, energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in the United States increased by about 0.4% per year. … [continued]
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Residential Energy Consumption Survey. Note: Includes occupied, primary housing units only. Total U.S. energy consumption in homes has remained relatively stable for many years as increased energy efficiency has offset the increase in the number and average size of housing units, according to the latest results from the Residential … [continued]
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly. Download CSV Data Amid historically low natural gas prices and the warmest March ever recorded in much of the United States, coal’s share of total net generation dropped to 34%—the lowest level since at least January 1973 (the earliest date for which EIA … [continued]
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration. Electricity storage technologies that can operate on timescales such as hours or days are often deployed at specific times of day to take advantage of variations in the price of electricity (see chart above, right). Storage operators can buy electricity when prices are lower (overnight … [continued]
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-923, Power Plant Operations Report. Notes: Non-hydroelectric renewables include generation from wind, solar, geothermal, and other renewable sources such as wood and wood wastes, municipal solid wastes, landfill gas, etc. Data for 2011 are preliminary. Non-hydroelectric renewable generation has increased in many states over the past … [continued]
