MORE NEW ENERGY ALL THE TIME

Americans use more efficient and renewable energy technologies

Anne M. Stark, October 8, 2012 (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

“Americans used less energy in 2011 than in the previous year due mainly to a shift to higher-efficiency energy technologies in the transportation and residential sectors. Meanwhile, less coal was used but more natural gas was consumed according to the most recent energy flow charts released by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

“Wind power saw the biggest jump from .92 quadrillion BTU, or quads, in 2010 up to 1.17 quads in 2011. (BTU or British Thermal Unit is a unit of measurement for energy and is equivalent to about 1.055 kilojoules)…Hydroelectricity also saw an increase going from 2.51 quads in 2010 up to 3.17 quads in 2011…Hydroelectricity jumped significantly in 2011 because 2011 saw large amounts of precipitation in the Western U.S…keeping reservoirs full…”

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“Overall, U.S. energy use in 2011 equaled 97.3 quads compared to the 98 quads used in 2010. Most of the energy was tied to coal, natural gas and petroleum…From 2010 to 2011, use of coal fell dramatically, use of oil (petroleum) fell slightly and use of natural gas increased slightly from 24.65 quads in 2010 to 24.9 quads in 2011…

“The majority of energy use in 2011 was used for electricity generation (39.2 quads), followed by transportation, industrial, commercial and residential consumption. However, energy use in the residential, commercial and transportation sectors decreased while industrial energy use increased if only slightly…”

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