| Science
exaggerates
renewable electricity Facts on renewables
We concede:
|
"For now the spotlight is shining
brightest on wind and solar power, which contribute less than 2% of the
nation’s total energy," says Kathryn Brown, writing in the 30 July, 1999
issue of Science; in truth, the spotlight isn't even as bright as
Brown pretends.
Renewable sources account for 12% of our electricity. Eighty-three percent of the renewable energy comes from hydroelectric plants. (We note that the EPA is busy reclassifying hydro as non-renewable, because dams inevitably cause flooding of land upstream, an environmental no-no). Some 13% of the renewable energy comes from biomass. (Most of that is waste sawdust from sawmills.) Geothermal (which isn’t solar energy and isn’t renewable) accounts for 3% of the "renewable" energy. Finally, wind and solar (PV and solar-thermal engines) combined account for less than 1.1% of our renewable electricity. That’s less than 0.13% of all our electricity. Scholar-scientist Brown correctly concludes that 0.13% is less than 2%. How could she do otherwise? |
