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Sep 02, 2010
Renewables Could Supply 10% of U.S. Power by 2020, Report Finds Jun 15, 2009 By Tina Seeley
June 15 (Bloomberg) -- Renewable-energy sources such as wind and solar could provide 10 percent of electricity in the U.S. by 2020 if funding is expanded to help cut costs of those technologies, the National Research Council said.
Renewable energy, excluding hydropower, could account for 20 percent of power by 2035, the group said in a report released today. It currently supplies about 2.5 percent of the nation’s electricity, and President Barack Obama has called for 25 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2025.
The report found there “are no current technological constraints” preventing an accelerated expansion of wind, solar, biomass and geothermal in the next 10 years. Renewable energy is more expensive than coal and other fossil fuels partly because adverse effects such as pollution aren’t fully reflected in the price of those traditional sources, the report said.
“The primary current barriers are the cost-competitiveness of the existing technologies relative to most other sources of electricity (with no costs assigned to carbon emissions or other currently unpriced externalities),” according to the report.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved legislation last month requiring as much as 20 percent renewable power by 2025, with a quarter of that potentially offset by efficiency measures. Energy legislation pending in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee would require 15 percent by 2021, with about a quarter of that from efficiency.
The non-profit National Research Council is part of the National Academies of Science, chartered by President Abraham Lincoln to provide scientific advice to the government.
The report was issued by the National Academies’ America’s Energy Future project, which is sponsored by the Energy Department, endowment funds and companies including General Electric Co., BP Plc and Intel Corp.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tina Seeley in Washington at tseeley@bloomberg.net. [back] |
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