Solar, wind, geothermal all show strong potential in mid-Atlantic, U.S.

With the season of renewal about to begin (finally!), this seems like a good time to highlight how far renewable energy has come in this country in the past several years as well as how much potential there is for renewables in the mid-Atlantic and the U.S. – especially with the economy finally starting to warm up, too.

Renewable energy installations in the United States nearly tripled between 2000 and 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Including hydropower, renewable energy represented nearly 11% of total installed capacity and more than 9% of total generation in the United States in 2008.

And renewable energy has been capturing a growing share of new capacity in the U.S. during the past few years. In 2008, renewable energy accounted for more than 43% of all new grid-connected electrical installations in the United States—a large contrast from just four years earlier, when all renewable energy captured only 2% of new capacity additions, according to the Department of Energy.

As for specific types of renewable energy, solar has high potential right here in the mid-Atlantic. “Believe it or not, Maryland gets 95% as much sunshine per day as Florida, the official ‘sunshine state.’ And we get almost twice as much sun as Germany, the world leader in solar installations,” according to Astrum Solar, Annapolis Junction, Md.:
And a solar photovoltaic (PV) system can generate a quicker payback in – again, believe it or not – the mid-Atlantic than California, the Golden State, says a 2009 study by SYN-DEX Consulting, Alexandria, Va. (“Comparing Simple Payback of Solar Systems in California and the Mid-Atlantic States”) “When it comes to the PV marketplace in the United States, everyone recognizes that California is the largest market. However, as California’s incentives ratchet down and other states develop their markets, emerging states” such as Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania “are starting to look more favorable,” the study says.

Wind. In 2009, 10 gigawatts (GW) of new wind power capacity was installed in the U.S.: enough to power 2.4 million homes, according to the American Wind Energy Association’s Year-End 2009 Market Report. The last quarter of 2009 alone saw the installation of 4 GW. And all this was at no cost to the taxpayer, with private investment only.

In addition, a new assessment by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory shows that U.S. onshore wind resources are larger than previously estimated. Among the conclusions from this report:
Onshore U.S. wind resources could generate nearly 37,000,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) annually, more than nine times current total U.S. electricity consumption.
Put another way, the potential capacity of America’s onshore wind resource is over 10,000 gigawatts (GW). The U.S. is barely tapping this vast resource: current wind installed capacity is 35 GW in the U.S. and 158 GW world-wide.

And right here in Maryland, offshore wind power could provide for two-thirds of the state’s electricity needs using current technology and nearly twice as much as the state needs after the technology improves, says a recent study sponsored by the Abell Foundation. (See our Feb. 19 blog at http://www.thesolarandwindexpo.blogspot.com/). Even onshore, new technologies are being developed that enable turbines to generate power at lower speeds, making wind more viable in areas such as the mid-Atlantic where wind doesn’t blow as strongly as off-shore or, say, in the Great Plains states.

Geothermal. There are geothermal reservoirs – areas of concentrated geothermal energy – in much of the western U.S. as well as a few other locations, including western Pennsylvania and western New York, according to the Geothermal Education Office, an organization based in Tiburon, Calif. However, geothermal heat pumps – which the EPA calls among the most efficient heating and cooling technologies available today – can be used almost everywhere in the world, without a geothermal reservoir, by drawing on the earth’s natural insulating properties.

Looking a little further into the future, renewable energy could expand exponentially in coming years in this country as technologies improve, prices of renewable devices decrease and the cost of fossil fuels rises. Put another way… the sun, wind and earth have limitless potential!

make green a reality!

http://www.thesolarandwindexpo.com/