RENEWable Energy Information

Renewable energy accounted for more than 10% of the domestically-produced energy used in the United States in the first half of 2008.

It's important to invest in safe RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES. Old fashioned methods of producing energy need to be left in the past. Oil consumption is peaking and it's such a dirty fuel (fires, pollution, CO₂ emissions). "Clean Coal" is NOT even remotely clean (see: mercury or strip-mining), and if you think nuclear power is clean: just look around. Any corporate robot that tries to push nuclear energy or "clean coal" is either brainwashed or lying to make profits (stocks, investments, bribes).

Learn about alternative energy sources like: geothermal, solar, wind, magnets, tides waves, and more resources that were available long before Westinghouse bought Nikola Tesla and his ideas. Electric cars, hydraulic power, electricity converters, and many more products are becoming more available.

Tesla Motors' first production vehicle, the Tesla Roadster, is an all-electric sports car based on a Lotus frame. The Tesla Roadster has a range of 221 miles (at $0.02 per mile), and accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in less than 4 seconds with a top speed of 125 mph.

Tesla is also currently working on a sedan (originally code-named the "WhiteStar" and now known as the Model S) which will be introduced as a 2012 model with an estimated price of $57,400.

The first U.S. geothermal power plant opened at The Geysers in California in 1960. The United States generates an average of 15 billion kilowatt hours of geothermal power per year (comparable to burning 25 million barrels of oil or 6 million tons of coal). A geothermal resource assessment shows that 9 western states together have the potential to provide over 20% of national electricity needs.

A 2006 report by MIT studies the use of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) and concludes that it's affordable to generate 100 GWe (gigawatts of electricity) or more by 2050 in the United States alone. This would cost a maximum investment of $1 billion US dollars in research and development over 15 years. The MIT report calculated the world's total EGS resources to be over 13,000 ZJ with over 200 ZJ extractable, and the potential to multiply geothermal energy to over 2,000 ZJ.

An EGS (also called a Hot Dry Rock system) reaches at least 10 km down into hard rock. At a typical site, two holes would be bored and the deep rock between them fractured. Water is pumped down one hole and steam comes up the other. The MIT report estimates that there is enough energy in hard rocks 10 km below the United States to supply all the world's current energy needs for 30,000 years!

U.S. wind power capacity now exceeds 20,152 MW which is enough to serve 5.3 million average households. In 2008, the United States was the fastest growing wind power market in the world for the third year in a row. DoE has said wind power could generate 20% of US electricity by 2030. The growing U.S. wind market spurred new investment in turbine and component manufacturing plants, with enough new and planned facilities to create more than 4,700 new U.S. jobs.

There is more wind power available in the atmosphere than current world energy consumption. The most comprehensive study to date found the potential of wind power (on land and near-shore) to be 72 TW, equivalent to 54,000 MToE (million tons of oil equivalent) per year, or over 5x the world's current energy use in all forms.

The Solar Energy Generating Systems in the Mojave Desert with a total generating capacity of 354 MW, making the system the largest solar plant of any kind in the world.

Daniel Lincot, the chairman of the 2008 European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and the research director of the Paris-based Photovoltaic Energy Development and Research Institute, said that photovoltaics can cover all the world energy demand. The deserts of the South Western United States could produce sufficient electricity to fulfill all of the electrical needs of the United States, and could even electrolyze water into Hydrogen and Oxygen to power the entire U.S. land fleet.

Commercial solar water heaters began appearing in the United States in the 1890s. In Canada the government offers the RESOP (Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program) that allows residential homeowners with solar panel installations to sell the EXTRA energy they produce back to the grid at 41¢/kWh, while drawing power from the grid at an average rate of 20¢/kWh.

Deep water wave power resources have been estimated to be greater than 2 TW. The world's first commercial wave farm opened in 2008 at the Aguçadora Wave Park in Portugal. Pelamis Wave Energy Converters use the motion of ocean surface waves to create electricity. Under the Marine Renewable Energy Research and Development Act of 2007 the United States has committed $200 million in federal funds toward wave energy technology to be allocated from 2008-2012.

Hydroelectricity supplied 19% of the world's electricity in 2005 (63% of electricity from renewable sources). The advantages of hydroelectricity are elimination of the cost of fuel, longer plant lives, and low labor costs. Hydroelectric plants can be added to dams with relatively low construction cost, providing revenue to offset the costs of dam operation. The sale of electricity from the Three Gorges Dam will cover the construction costs after 5 to 8 years of full generation.

A tidal power scheme is a long-term source of electricity. A proposal for the Severn Barrage has been projected to save 18 million tons of coal per year. Tidal barrage power schemes have a high capital cost and a very low running cost. As a result, a tidal power scheme may not produce returns for many years, and investors may be reluctant to participate in such projects.

In the United States, a study is required before constructing a hydroelectric project. In 2008, a study could cost up to $50,000 for a 100 feet (30 m) run of a stream. Both federal and state licenses were required (typically costs between $150,000 - $1,000,000). Hydroelectric projects earn money afterwards by selling energy, capacity, and renewable energy credits.

Biomass are plants (like hemp, corn, sugarcane) grown to generate electricity or produce biofuel, plus plant or animal matter used for production of fibers, chemicals, or heat. Plastics from biomass, like some recently developed to dissolve in seawater, are made the same way as petroleum-based plastics, are actually cheaper to manufacture and meet or exceed most performance standards.

The existing commercial biomass power generating industry in the United States, which consists of approximately 1,700 MW (megawatts) of operating capacity actively supplying power to the grid, produces about 0.5% of the U.S. electricity supply. Biologically produced alcohols are ethanol, propanol, and butanol.

E85 is 85% ethanol +15% gasoline. The United States produces mainly biodiesel and ethanol fuel, which uses corn as the main feedstock. In 2005, the U.S. overtook Brazil as the world's largest ethanol producer. In 2006 the US produced 4.855 billion gallons of ethanol.

Biofuel is any fuel derived from relatively recently-dead biological material. Biofuels are used to power vehicles, heat cornstoves and cooking stoves. Used vegetable oil is increasingly being processed into biodiesel and soy is used in 80% of USA biodiesel fuels which reduce greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, pollution, and the rate of biodegradation. Even landfill gas can be burned for heat and to generate electricity for public consumption.

Magnetic levitation is a system of transportation that suspends, guides and propels vehicles, using magnetic forces. MAGLEV has the potential to be faster, quieter, and smoother than wheeled mass transit systems with the potential to exceed 4000 mph if deployed in an evacuated tunnel.

The highest recorded speed of a maglev train is 581 km/h (361 mph), achieved in Japan in 2003, 6 km/h faster than the conventional TGV speed record.

Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC) was founded by Peabody Energy, Arch Coal, Southern Company, and DTE Energy. ABEC's members include:

BHP Billiton (world's biggest mining corporation)
Peabody Energy (biggest U.S. coal mining corporation)
Arch Coal (third biggest U.S. coal mining corporation)
CONSOL Energy (fourth biggest U.S. coal mining corporation)
Foundation Coal (fifth biggest U.S. coal mining corporation)
Duke Energy (biggest U.S. electric utility)
American Electric Power (third biggest U.S. electric utility)
Southern Company (fifth biggest U.S. electric utility)
FirstEnergy Corporation (seventh biggest U.S. electric utility)
Associated Electric Cooperative (fourth biggest U.S. electric cooperative)
Tri-State Transmission & Generation (fifth biggest U.S. electric cooperative)
Union Pacific Railroad (biggest U.S. railroad)
Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway (second biggest U.S. railroad)
CSX Corporation (third biggest U.S. railroad)
Norfolk Southern Railway (fourth biggest U.S. railroad)

In 2006, these 15 companies had total revenues of $146.5 billion. In January 2008, the Washington Post reported that ABEC "is waging a $35 million campaign in primary and caucus states to rally public support for coal-fired electricity and to fuel opposition to legislation that Congress is crafting to slow climate change."

ABEC increased its annual public relations and advertising budget from $8 million to $30 million, hired the advertising firm R&R Partners (whose CEO, Billy Vassiliadis, is also a Nevada advisor to the presidential campaign of Barack Obama).

In August 2008, ABEC (now ACCCE) planned to spend $2 million at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions promoting "clean coal" as the nation's energy solution. The Center for Public Integrity found that ACCCE spent $4.7 million lobbying in the first 6 months of 2008 - more than any other organization devoted solely to influencing climate change legislation, and more than 5x the amount spent by either the leading wind or solar industry groups.