In a 2007 study, Electricity Technology in a Carbon-Constrained Future, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), a Palo Alto, a non-profit consortium whose members include electric co-ops, showed how electric utilities could help the United States reduce carbon dioxide emissions below 1990 levels within 23 years by taking aggressive steps in seven principal areas, including vastly expanding renewable energy supplies.
Leaving hydropower out of the mix, EPRI (using updated data) sees renewables, led by wind, leaping from 24,000 MW produced nationally in 2006 to more than 120,000 MW by 2030—or from 2.5 percent of kilowatt-hours produced today to roughly 7 percent.
Says Glenn English, CEO of the National Rural Electric Association, “Renewables certainly have a key part to play in our nation’s energy future. But contrary to conventional wisdom, they can’t meet growing demand for electricity by themselves.”
This Special Report published RE Magazine examines often obstacles deploying renewable energy such as transmission, intermittency and cost.