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OVER HALF OF ELECTRIC POWER NOW COMING FROM RENEWABLE SOURCES
Jan. 17, 2013
Agri-Pulse reports:
Electric power generated under state Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) represented 54 percent of all retail electricity sales in the United States in 2012, despite renewable power having virtually no share of the market 15 years ago, data from the DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) shows.
An RPS requires that a certain percentage of the market be supplied by new renewable energy sources, including anaerobic digesters on animal operations, wind farms and solar energy facilities - all found in rural areas across the country.
Some areas of the country, particularly in the northeast, have significant biomass markets that are providing feedstocks for co-generation with coal and natural gas in many power plants.
American agriculture is helping meet the goals established by those state standards by harvesting wind power, biopower and other renewables, says Patrick Mazza, research director at Climate Solutions, a regional non-profit group based in Seattle.
"America's farmers and working lands have the capacity to bring abundant clean energy supplies to the marketplace," Mazza says, adding that the energy market generates new revenues, "spurs economic renaissance in farm belts across the country and gives new generations a chance to stay in rural communities."
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