Renewable Energy Trends 2005 Edition
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Consumption Renewable energy consumption increased 2 percent between 2004 and 2005 (Table 1), while total U.S. energy consumption was essentially flat. Increases in coal and petroleum demand were offset by decreases in natural gas and nuclear energy. At 6.6 quadrillion btu, renewable energy's market share approached 7 percent, a slightly higher share than in the preceding few years (Figure H1). Data revisions and changes in the definition of biofuels combined to have a greater effect on the renewable energy balance than actual changes in the renewable energy industry; see the section, "Energy Consumption Revisions" below. Figure H1. The Role of Renewable Energy Consumption in the Nation's Energy Supply, 2005
Source: Table 1 of this report. The electric power and industrial sectors continued to have by far the largest portions of renewable energy consumption with 56 and 29 percent of the market, respectively (Table 2). Nonetheless, renewable energy still accounts for only 9 percent of total U.S. electricity generation. Wind energy experienced the most rapid growth at 26 percent between 2004 and 2005, while the biofuel industry's annual rate of growth was the second most rapid at over 15 percent. Wind energy now accounts for nearly 3 percent of total renewable energy, compared with barely over 1 percent in 2001. Renewable energy consumed (by electric only and combined heat and power plants) remained flat at about 4,000 trillion btu between 2004 and 2005 at just over 60 percent of renewable energy demand (Tables 1 and 3). Wood/wood waste, conventional hydro, and wind energy consumed in the electric power sector for electricity generation increased, largely offsetting a decline in industrial wood/wood waste consumption for electricity generation. The remaining industrial sector renewable energy consumed for electricity, as well as commercial sector consumption, was either flat or increased just slightly. Renewable energy consumed for non-electric use increased 7 percent, from 2.360 quadrillion btu to 2.525 quadrillion btu, following trends seen in recent years (Table 4). Most of the 500 trillion btu change between 2001 and 2005 was driven by growth in biofuel consumption in the transportation sector and in the industrial sector (i.e. at the biorefineries used to produce biofuels) (Figure H2). As a result, industrial biomass energy for non-electric purposes grew nearly 18 percent between 2001 and 2005, while biomass used to produce electricity in the industrial sector dropped by 16 percent. Biomass is the only form of renewable energy used more for non-electric purposes than to generate electricity-74 percent of total biomass consumption is for non-electric purposes (Tables 1 and 4). A smaller portion of the increase in non-electric use of renewable energy was due to industrial sector consumption of wood/wood waste for steam and process heat. Figure H2. Biofuels Consumption in the Transportation Sector, 2001-2005
Source: Table 2 of this report. Tables 5a and 5b present historical renewable energy consumption from 1989 to 2005. Some general trends are of interest. Changes in the hydroelectric industry due to fluctuating levels of water influence renewable energy consumption as much or more than any other factor, including those discussed above. In 2001, renewable energy appeared to decline sharply, but a closer look reveals that hydroelectric power was at its lowest output between 1989 and 2005 due to drought. In fact, the swing in hydropower between 1997 (the highest between 1989 and 2005) and 2001 (the lowest) was 1.4 quadrillion btu (Figure H3). By 2005, water levels returned to more normal levels, and renewable energy accounted for 7 percent of U.S. energy consumption, compared to 6 percent in 2001. Figure H3. Hydroelectric Power Consumption, 1989-2005
Source: Tables 5a and 5b of this report.
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Biomass energy consumption increased by 3 percent overall to 3,298 trillion btu in 2005, or half of total renewable energy consumption (Tables 1 and 6). Nearly 65 percent of biomass energy consumption, or 2,126 trillion btu, was wood consumption, concentrated in the industrial sector’s lumber and paper and pulp industries. Another 17 percent, 577 trillion btu, was energy from waste. Despite being a relatively small component of biomass, biofuels experienced the most rapid growth within the biomass fuel category. Ethanol consumption in the transportation sector was 342 trillion btu, or 4 billion gallons in 2005, well on the way to allowing the ethanol industry meet the Renewables Fuel Standard of 7.5 billion gallons in 2012.[1] Biodiesel consumption in the transportation sector represented a much smaller volume of biofuels than ethanol, but it increased almost fourfold to 11 trillion btu from 2004 to 2005, and up from just 1 trillion btu in 2001 (Figure H4). Including biofuel losses and coproducts in the industrial sector, total biofuel consumption was 594 trillion btu in 2005.
Figure H4. Biodiesel Consumption in the Transportation Sector, 2001-2005
Source: Table 2 of this report.
Energy consumption from waste in 2005 was little changed from the preceding few years (Tables 6 and 7). More than half, or 299 trillion btu, was municipal solid waste (MSW) consumed primarily by independent power producers and entities in the commercial sector for producing electric power. The vast majority of MSW energy was consumed by independent power producers. Landfill gas and other biomass consumption for 2005 were 148 trillion btu and 130 trillion btu, respectively.
Industrial biomass energy consumption increased about 2 percent to 1,875 trillion btu in 2005 (Tables 2 and 8). Biorefinery consumption, which is presented for the first time in this report, accounts for about 241 trillion btu of this total. This includes energy consumed to produce ethanol and biodiesel fuels and coproducts. While industries frequently cogenerate electricity and steam, most biomass energy consumption in the industrial sector, or 1,557 trillion btu, was used for useful thermal output or process heat during 2005.
The Paper and Allied Products industry consumed nearly two-thirds of all biomass for energy in 2005. This industry accounted for nearly 60 percent of biomass consumed to produce “useful thermal output” and over 90 percent of total biomass energy consumed to produce electricity. Seventy percent of biomass energy consumed by the Paper and Allied Products industry was black liquor, a residue of the kraft paper-making process.
A total of 109 electricity generating plants burned both biomass and coal in 2005. Table 9 shows the individual plant’s total energy consumption and separately the percent each from biomass, coal, and other energy sources. Plants for which biomass is only a small fraction of total energy consumption compared to coal are generally “co-fired” plants attempting to reduce emissions without making major retrofit investments. The remaining plants are dual- or multi-fired plants consuming fuels based on availability, demand and price. The average fuel mix for plants that use both coal and biomass was about 36 percent biomass and 55 percent coal in 2005, with the remainder being other fuels.
Electricity[back to top]
Renewable energy provided about 365 billion kilowatthours or 9 percent of total U.S. generation in 2005 (Table 11).[2] Conventional hydroelectric power provided about 74 percent or 270 billion kilowatthours of the renewable total. However, the biggest year to year increase, almost 4 billion kilowatthours, was for the expanding wind industry, which has grown at an average annual rate of 28 percent between 2001 and 2005. As a result, wind generation, which stood at half of geothermal generation in 2001, exceeded geothermal generation in 2005. Ninety percent of renewable generation was in the electric power sector, while the industrial and commercial sectors accounted for the remainder.
Renewable electric capacity increased by just over 2 percent to 98,791 megawatts in 2005. However, wind energy provided the second-greatest increase in capacity of all energy sources, renewable or non-renewable. Between 2004 and 2005, total U.S. net summer capacity increased by over 15,000 megawatts to 978,020 megawatts.[3] Of this increase, natural gas provided about 12,000 megawatts; wind followed in second place with over 2,000 megawatts (Table 12 and Figure H5). In December 2006 the federal renewable production tax credit was extended through 2008 with the passage of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006.[4] This is expected to support continued expansion in the renewable electric power industry.
Figure H5. Wind Net Summer Capacity, 2001-2005
Source: Table 12 of this report.
Although geothermal capacity increased by only 130 MW during 2005, there are proposals to greatly expand the geothermal resource base to be exploited. These proposals are based on a recent study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy, in which scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology concluded that the U.S. has 100,000 MW of “enhanced geothermal capacity” which it could develop by 2050.[5]
Nevada and Arizona had the largest solar renewable portfolio standard requirements in place during 2005, and this is reflected in future plans for solar-electric generating plants. During 2007, Nevada Solar One, located south of Las Vegas near Boulder City, Nevada, will become the largest solar/photovoltaic plant to be operating anywhere in the world during the past 15 years. This 64-megawatt power plant is being developed by the North Carolina-based company Solargenix. During 2005, however, only a single new PV plant was reported to EIA as having gone into operation, the 1-MW Saguaro plant in Arizona.[6]
Forty-seven percent of renewable electricity generation in 2005 was in the Pacific Contiguous division, due to the large concentration of hydro power there (Table 13) and the availability of many other renewable resources in California. California also has a very proactive stance toward renewables. The Pacific division also had the highest concentration of geothermal and solar generation in 2005.
Biomass generation in the industrial sector totaled more than 29 billion kilowatthours in 2005 (Table 14). All but 5 percent of it was provided by black liquor (61 percent) and wood/wood waste solids (34 percent). The South Atlantic division had the most generation (9 billion kilowatthours) followed by the East South Central and West South Central divisions with about 6 billion kilowatthours each. Together, they made the South the predominant region for industrial biomass generation.
State Electricity[back to top]
Renewable electricity generation increased by 6 billion kilowatthours between 2004 and 2005 (Tables 17 and 20). The largest increases were hydropower in California and New York and wind power in Texas. Renewable net summer capacity increased by almost 2,400 megawatts (Tables 23 and 26). Wind capacity accounted for over 90 percent (about 2,250 megawatts) of the increase. Texas experienced a 469 megawatt increase in wind capacity during 2005, while Oklahoma had 298. Iowa and Minnesota each had about 200 megawatt increases. The five largest new plants that came on line were: Horse Hollow (213 MW in Texas, by Florida Power and Light); the Century project (185 MW in Iowa, by Mid-America Energy); the Blue Canyon II project (151 MW in Oklahoma, by Blue Canyon Windpower); the Elk River project (150 MW in Kansas, by PPM Energy); and the Hopkins Ridge project (150 MW in Washington, by Puget Sound Energy).
As the capacity increases indicate, wind is becoming an increasingly diverse resource geographically. Whereas in 2001 wind farms operated in only 18 states, by 2005 they operated in a total of 27 states, reflecting significant growth from the early 1990’s when most of the U.S. wind industry was in just one state, California.[7] According to the American Wind Energy Association, by the end of 2006 Texas overtook California as the Nation’s leader in wind energy capacity.[8]
The percent of U.S. electricity provided by renewable energy stayed steady at about 9 percent between 2004 and 2005. However, this percentage has varied considerably over the past decade, due to large swings in hydropower output. The nonhydro renewable energy share, in contrast, has varied little over the past 10 years, amounting to just 2.2 percent of total electricity generation in 2005 (Table 27).
The renewable share of electricity varies widely across states. Idaho, Washington, and Oregon had the highest percentages of renewable generation in 2005 at 84.2 percent, 72.8 percent and 66.1 percent respectively. This was due to their large supplies of hydropower. Maine had the largest percent of nonhydro renewable generation at 21.6 percent, owing to Maine’s Nation-leading generation from wood/wood waste. Twenty-three states had less than 2 percent of generation from nonhydro renewable sources, while Delaware and the District of Columbia had no reported renewable generation.
Figure H6. Renewable Portfolio Standards and State Mandates by State, 2007
(a) In Florida the RPS is not statewide.
Note: In a few states, such as Hawaii, Illinois, and Vermont the renewable portfolio standard (RPS) is voluntary. An unshaded state indicates
there is no RPS or state mandate for that state.
Source: North Carolina Solar Center, Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE) website: http://www.dsireusa.org (February
6, 2007)
By early 2007, 25 states had enacted renewable portfolio standards (RPS) or state mandates for the use of renewable energy (Table 28 and Figure H6). Delaware and Vermont adopted their standards in mid-2005, with Washington approving measures in late 2006. Delaware’s standard requires the state’s retail suppliers to use renewable energy to generate at least 10 percent of the electricity they sell by 2019.
Vermont’s renewable portfolio goal is for the state’s electric utilities to meet growth in electricity demand between 2005 and 2012 by using energy efficiency and renewable energy resources. If Vermont’s voluntary goal is not achieved by 2012, it will become mandatory in 2013. Washington already provided 72.8 percent of total generation from renewable energy sources, including a large share from conventional hydro in 2005. Washington’s new Initiative Measure 937 would require investor-owned utilities to draw on new renewable energy sources for 15 percent of their electrical supply by 2020.
In addition, there was a flurry of activity in several states to strengthen existing standards during 2006. Arizona passed new rules for utilities to draw on renewable energy for 15 percent of their electricity supply by 2025. For 2006, the Arizona requirement was just 1.25 percent. New Jersey approved regulations to extend the renewable portfolio standard from 4 percent in 2008 to 20 percent in 2020 and expand the market for solar energy. Wisconsin significantly increased its standard from 2.2 percent in 2010 to 10 percent by 2015.
Energy Consumption Revisions[back to top]
Biomass
Transportation Sector
The EIA has expanded its coverage of biofuels to include biodiesel fuel, whose consumption has grown from 1 trillion btu in 2001 to 11 trillion btu in 2005 (Table 2). These estimates are based on production data collected by the US Department of Agriculture Commodity Credit Corporation’s Bioenergy Program, which ended in December 2005. The EIA forecast in the Annual Energy Outlook 2007 indicates that consumption of biodiesel, which is presently primarily made from soy bean oil, will continue to expand in the future.
Industrial Sector
The EIA has added coverage of biorefineries and biofuels to include: (1) the energy in feedstocks lost in the production of ethanol and biodiesel and (2) energy in the coproducts of ethanol and biodiesel production. In the case of ethanol, this adds almost 241 trillion btu to 2005 industrial sector biomass consumption and for biodiesel almost one-half trillion btu (Table 2). Since no data is currently collected in EIA on feedstock inputs to biorefineries, loss and coproduct data are estimates. The ethanol factors used to estimate apparent feedstocks and yields are extrapolated from data reported by the US Department of Agriculture in its 1998 and 2002 issues of the report, U.S. Ethanol Cost-of-Production Survey. The biodiesel factors used to estimate apparent feedstocks and yields are based on research and analysis conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Residential Sector
Since the last issue of this report, EIA conducted a review of its residential sector wood estimates and found there were inconsistencies between years in the approach taken. Baseline information is collected only once every three or four years in the EIA’s Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS). Adjustments are made using changes in heating degree days to obtain estimates for the missing years. In the revised estimates here, adjustments are applied to previous year’s estimates using regional heating degree days. Previously, this had been done inconsistently (only a few years had used regional heating degree days), and an additional small adjustment had been taken for wood pellet fuels which resulted in double counting in some years. In 2004 the revision resulted in an estimate of 410 trillion btu of wood consumption in the residential sector compared to 332 trillion btu (Table H1). Using regional heating degree days instead of national heating degree days accounts for most of the difference.
| Table H1. Residential Sector Wood Energy
Consumption, 2001-2005 (Quadrillion Btu) |
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| Approach | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 |
| Old Basis | 0.370 | 0.313 | 0.359 | 0.332 | NA |
| New Basis | 0.370 | 0.380 | 0.400 | 0.410 | 0.420 |
| NA=Not Applicable. Source: Old Basis: Energy Information Administration, Renewable Energy Trends 2004 (Washington, DC, August 2005), Table 2. New Basis: Residential sector biomass in Table 2 of this report. |
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Commercial Sector
Previously, the EIA estimates of commercial sector wood energy consumption were based on an assumption about the share of total wood energy used by the commercial sector. A review of available information supported exploration of wood data reported in EIA’s Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) conducted every three or four years and led to a revision in EIA’s methodology. Using CBECS estimates of the square footage of commercial floor space heated by wood and an average number of btus required to heat a square foot, EIA derived estimates of wood consumption for the commercial sector in CBECS years. Changes in heating degree days are applied to the average consumption in the four CBECS years available and used to make calculations for the non-CBECS years. The revisions resulted in an estimate of almost 70 trillion btu of wood energy consumed in the commercial sector in 2004 compared to the 41 trillion btu previously estimated (Table H2).
| Table H2. Commerical Sector Wood/Wood Waste
Energy Consumption, 2001-2005 (Quadrillion Btu) |
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| Approach | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 |
| Old Basis | 0.040 | 0.039 | 0.040 | 0.041 | NA |
| New Basis | 0.067 | 0.069 | 0.071 | 0.070 | 0.070 |
| NA=Not Applicable. Note: Includes small amounts of wood/wood waste consumed for power generation. Source: Old Basis: Energy Information Administration, Renewable Energy Trends 2004 (Washington, DC, August 2005), Table 2. New Basis: Commercial sector wood/wood waste in Table 2 of this report. |
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Geothermal
EIA made small revisions to its estimates of non-electric energy as a result of revisions made by the Oregon Geo-Heat Institute, which tracks energy consumed by geothermal heat pumps and for direct heat applications (e.g., crop drying).
[1] The Energy Policy Act of 2005, signed into law in August 2005, established the Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires that gasoline sold in the United States contain 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2012. Since then President Bush in his State of the Union address on January 23, 2007 proposed an "Alternate Fuel Standard" with a goal of 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternate fuels by 2017.
[2] Energy Information Administration, Monthly Energy Review January 2007 (Washington, DC, January 2007), Table 7.2a, p. 99.
[3] Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Annual 2005 (Washington, DC, Revised November 2006), Table 2.1.
[4] Without the extension the federal renewable production tax credit would have expired at the end of 2007. This provides a 1.9 cent per kilowatthour (adjusted for inflation) tax credit for electricity generated in the first ten years of a project's operation. Technologies that qualify are wind, solar, geothermal and "closed-loop" bioenergy facilities. Other technologies such as "open-loop" biomass, incremental hydropower, small irrigation systems, landfill gas, and municipal solid waste receive a lesser credit.
[5] "The Future of Geothermal Energy," prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy by the Massachussetts Institute of Technology. See http://www1.eere.energy.gov/geothermal/future_geothermal.html . The U.S. Department of Energy has broadly defined Enhanced (or "engineered") Geothermal Systems as engineered reservoirs that have been created to extract economical amounts of heat from low permeability and/or porosity geothermal resources. This includes all geothermal resources that are not currently in commercial production (e.g., the Geysers) and that require stimulation or enhancement.
[6] The EIA collects data only for those plants that have a capacity of 1 megawatt or more.
[7] States that put in operation wind farms for the first time between the end of 2001 and end of 2005 (according to data collected on the Energy Information Administration's Form EIA-860) include: Alaska, Idaho, Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, and West Virginia.
[8] American Wind Energy Association press release, June 23, 2007. See http://www.awea.org/newsroom/releases/Wind_Power_Capacity_012307.html .
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