Thursday, July 23, 2015

How much can renewable energy contribute to the total energy supplied to a region? What technologies have the greatest growth potential?

Screenshot of SWERA, NREL
There is a lot of energy out there that has not yet been tapped--and most of it is renewable. However, not all places receive the same amount of energy. Different sources are distributed non-uniformly across the planet. Follow this link to learn more about the distribution of energy resources. The greatest amount of solar energy is found around the equator. There are significant wind resources offshore, although there can be significant resources inland, as well. These resources also vary based on season and time of day (not much sun shines during the night, generally). Also not all of these resources make sense to use since energy is lost when the energy is transported and it costs money to develop transportation infrastructure. Click on your country and look at its profile. The resource potential should be listed. Click on your state. You should be able to see information on how your state gets its energy and the potential for further development. This data was all gathered together by NREL, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

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