Renewables at 12% and Rising

Renewable energy now provides 8-12% domestic energy production, depending on your perspective of whether big hydro is renewable. Some data says so, others say not. The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s “Monthly Energy Review.” with data through May 2012, reports that non-hydro renewable energy sources (i.e. biofuels, biomass, geothermal, solar, wind) accounted for 8% of domestic energy production for the first five months of 2012, a 5% increase over the same period in 2011.

Including hydropower, renewables contributed 11.9% of domestic energy production for the first five months of 2012. Hydropower accounted for 3.78% of domestically energy production, followed by biomass (3.08%), biofuels (2.59%), wind (1.89%), geothermal (0.29), and solar (0.25%).