News about Solar, Wind and alternative green power technologies

There is a slight decrease in the volume of energy being consumed in America but renewable are constantly playing a more significant role. When comparing 2008 and 2009, we can find that considerably more wind power, and less fossil fuel (petroleum and coal) was used in the United States. Additionally, a rise in hydro, geothermal and solar power is seen while the use of natural gas is declining. This is what the latest energy flow charts published by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Apparently, energy demands are correlated to the level of economic activities. During the last year, the level of economic activities declined and so did energy consumption. Concurrently, progress in technology is offering more efficient vehicles and appliances reducing the energy demand for the future even more. This is what A.J. Simon, an LLNL energy system analyst responsible for the energy flow chart at the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration said. The outcome of technologic progress and economic hurdles was a general decrease in demand for energy.

From 2008 to 2009 the U.S energy demand decreased from 99.2 quadrillion BTUs to 94.6 quadrillion BTUs (quad). Moreover, BTU stands for British thermal unit, and it is a common measure of energy equivalent to 1.055 kilojoules.

The energy demand decreased across all layers of society from commercial, industrial, residential to transport.

However, one source that contributed an increasing part of American’s energy demand was wind power. Energy provided by wind energy rose from .51 quads, in 2008 to .70 quads in 2009. Most of the wind energy is directly used to produce electricity and did thus significantly help to decrease the production of electricity from coal.

According to Simon, the rise of renewable energies is vital for the economy. During 2010, there is a dozen of wind projects spurring in the pipeline. So the wind arena is likely to show positive figures for this year as well.

Simon says that electricity production previously represented by coal has been falling due to three main reasons being increased use of wind energy, lower electricity demand as well as a shift from coal to natural gas.

In 2009, the amount of energy produced by nuclear plants remained relatively stagnant to 2008. There were no major changes, or new plants established in the nation in 2009.

Moreover, out of the 94.6 quadrillion BTUs utilised merely 39.97 was due to energy services. The energy services include lighting and machinery. Simon claims that it is difficult to estimate the real fuel consumption utilized to produce this amount of energy.

One of a country’s energy efficient measures is the ratio of the total amount of energy to energy services.

Simon predicts that reports specifying facts about carbon emissions will be in the same trend. A decrease in the use of coal, petroleum and natural gas should be associated with a lower diffusion of greenhouse gases. In other words, as people are doing less work, less fuel are burnt and the equally less pollution is released.

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been helping the Energy Information Administration’s U.S energy body to have accurate and visual data for three decades. It has been operating since it was established in the 1970s.

Source: E-Sciencenews, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory