Renewable Energy

Accounting for ten percent of the total energy produced in the United States, renewable energy has been used continually even in other countries. Hydroelectric power plants produce 300,000 megawatts of energy making it a top contributor of energy in the country. Geothermal, wind and solar power plants are the other numerous sources of energy that generate electricity, and renewable energy has shown substantial growth, especially in wind energy, over the years.

The increase in the production of solar, geothermal, and wind power is seen to continually grow until 2012, when most increases are seen to come from wind produced energy. This is evidently true after the United States produced a recorded amount of 25,170 megawatts of electricity in December 2008, power enough to supply electricity to about seven million families. Texas, Iowa, and California are the leading states in the country generating energy from the wind, with Texas having the largest wind farm in the world, the Horse Hollow Wind Energy Centre. It has a capacity of 735.5 megawatts making it a valuable part of wind energy production in the United States.

Solar energy, on the other hand, is being widely utilised for needs to increase energy generation as more and more solar power plants are being put up. Solar thermal power stations, for example, the Nevada Solar One and the Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) in the Mojave Desert have been generating electrical power for quite some time now.

Geothermal energy production has also increased in the United States, making it a leader in the production of geothermal power in the world due to its online capacity amounting to 30% from the different geothermal projects across the country.