New Energy Emergence Goes On

Renewables Grow Over 10% in First Half 2017 as Consumption of Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Power Falls…Renewables Now Provide ~42% More Energy than Nuclear

Ken Bossong, October 2, 2017 (U.S. Energy Information (EIA) via Sun Day)

“…[D]omestic production and use of renewable energy sources (i.e., biofuels, biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, wind) continued to show strong growth during the first half of the year as the consumption of both nuclear power and fossil fuels declined…Renewables accounted for 13.49% of domestic energy production during the first half of 2017 compared to 12.61% during the same period in 2016 and 10.88% in 2015…On the consumption side (i.e., energy used for electricity, transportation, thermal, etc.), the pattern of growth is similar…[From 2015 to 2016,] solar production and use has grown by 39.86%, hydropower by 16.13%, wind by 15.65%, and geothermal by 1.80%...By comparison, energy output from the nation's nuclear power plants in the first half of 2017 was 3.27% lower than in the same period in 2016 and 2.29% lower than its 2015 level. As a share of the nation's overall energy production, nuclear power is now less than one-tenth - just 9.44% - and even lower (8.40%) as a share of energy consumption…[O]verall consumption of fossil fuels (i.e., coal, natural gas, oil) continued its downward slide from 81.73% of total energy use in the first half of 2015 to 80.31% for the same six-month period in 2016, and to 79.46% in 2017…” click here for more

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