Renewable Deal Plank One Chapter 1 Renewable Energy Feasibility, page 3By 2006, the U.S. renewables industry had created 386,000 jobs, compared with 82,000 jobsexisting in the coal industry [Worldwatch,
Green Jobs
, 2008]. Worldwide, the renewablesindustry had created 2.3 million jobs by 2006 [ibid]. (See Chapter 2, Green Jobs, of Plank 7 fordetailed information on renewable energy job creation historically and prospectively.)In early 2006, rising awareness of the myriad benefits of renewable energy led a cross-section of agriculture and forestry groups to launch “25 x ‘25,” calling for 25 percent of U.S. energydemand to be met with clean, secure, renewable energy from America’s farms, ranches, andforests by the year 2025. By mid-2006, the initiative had received bipartisan endorsement from13 governors, 4 state legislatures, 32 U.S. Congressman and 19 U.S. Senators.As Worldwatch reports, “In the summer of 2008, T. Boone Pickens, a prominent Texas oiltycoon, proposed deploying massive wind farms in the Great Plains to provide at least a fifth of U.S. electricity. A couple of weeks later, former vice president Al Gore proposed shutting downall uncontrolled U.S. coal-fired power plants within a decade and replacing them mainly withrenewables. Then, in early October, Google proposed ending coal-fired generation in the UnitedStates by 2030, spending $4 trillion to replace it with efficiency and renewables, with the goal of making renewables cheaper than coal....A week later, the International Energy Agency, whichhas for decades dismissed renewables as niche sources of energy, called for these sources tosupply half of global electricity by 2050.” In 2008 U.S. billionaire Warren Buffet invested $230million in BYD, a Chinese battery manufacturer that plans to mass market a hybrid electric car.
Zero-Carbon Renewable Energy Production Capacity Assessments(Using current Best Available Technology)Section 1: 2006 National Policy Conference Forecast:Renewable Energy Can Be Fifty Percent of Total U.S. Energy Supply by 2025
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S. generated more than55 Mwh of renewable energy in 2005, or about 1.5 percent of total U.S. energy production. In2007, the EIA reported non-hydro “other renewables” contributed 2 percent of total U.S. energyproduction.On November 30, 2006, 450 renewable energy policy, financial, and technology leadersattending the 5
th
national policy conference, “Renewable Energy in America: Phase II MarketForecasts and Policy Requirements” in Washington, D.C., announced their collective futuredeliverable renewable energy capacity to be 550 to 700 gigawatts by the year 2025. Thisassessment was an evaluative response to the “25x25" policy goal of producing 25 percent of U.S. energy from renewable sources by the year 2025. The industry panel projection of anachievable capacity ranging from a low of 550 gigawatts represents a 50 percent overshoot of the“25x25" policy goal by 2025 as the worst-case scenario. In other words, using off-the-shelf andlate-stage developing renewable energy technologies, the U.S. can certainly generate 25 percent,and possibly as much as 40 percent of all its energy needs from renewables by 2025 if theinvestment is made to install this generating capacity. Conference presentations may be
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