US renewable energy consumption

Excerpt

The US Energy Information Administration has released an online report showing that US renewable energy consumption increased by 7% for the largest increase in the last 5 years. The renewable energy share of the US market is roughly equal to that of nuclear energy’s 8% share. Components of the renewable energy share are solar, biomass, geothermal, hydroelectric, and wind. The largest contributor is biomass which is a direct consequence of the ethanol production. In 2006 ethanol production increased by about 25% from the 3.9 billion gallons (18.7 billion liters) production of 2005. The US Department of Agriculture has estimated that 14% of the corn crop went to ethanol production up from 11% for the 2005 crop year. Ethanol plants in the US increased from 95 in operation on January 2006 to 110 a year later. There are an additional 76 plants under construction. Ethanol production rose by 1.2 billion gallons (5.7 billion liters) per year for a total online capacity of 5.5 billion gallons (26.4 billion liters) by January 2007. Biodiesel production amounted to 91 million gallons (436.8 million liters) in the 2005 timeframe. No diesel production information was available for 2006. …