RENEWABLE SOURCES CONTINUE
EXPLOSIVE GROWTH:
 
NOW PROVIDE 12% OF DOMESTIC ENERGY
PRODUCTION - 14% MORE THAN 2010
 
RENEWABLE ELECTRICAL OUTPUT INCREASES 25%;
CONTRIBUTES 13% OF U.S. POWER

For Immediate Release:  Tuesday - January 3, 2012
 
Contact:  Ken Bossong, 301-270-6477 x.11
 
Washington DC – According to the most recent issue of the "Monthly Energy Review" by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), with data through September 30, 2011, renewable energy sources continue to expand rapidly while substantially outpacing the growth rates of fossil fuels and nuclear power.
 
For the first nine months of 2011, renewable energy sources (i.e., biomass/biofuels, geothermal, solar, water, wind) provided 11.95% of domestic U.S. energy production. That compares to 10.85% for the same period in 2010 and 10.33% in 2009. By comparison, nuclear power provided just 10.62% of the nation's energy production in the first three quarters of 2011 -- i.e., 11.10% less than renewables.
 
Looking at all energy sectors (e.g., electricity, transportation, thermal), renewable energy output, including hydropower, grew by 14.44% in 2011 compared to 2010. Among the renewable energy sources, conventional hydropower provided 4.35% of domestic energy production during the first nine months of 2011, followed by biomass (3.15%), biofuels (2.57%), wind (1.45%), geothermal (0.29%), and solar (0.15%).
 
(On the consumption side, which includes oil and other energy imports, renewable sources accounted for 9.35% of total U.S. energy use during the first nine months of 2011.)
 
Looking at just the electricity sector, according to the latest issue of EIA’s "Electric Power Monthly," with data through September 30, 2011, renewable energy sources (i.e., biomass, geothermal, solar, water wind) provided 12.73% of net U.S. electrical generation. This represents an increase of 24.73% compared to the same nine-month period in 2010. By comparison, electrical generation from coal dropped by 4.2% while nuclear output declined by 2.8%. Natural gas electrical generation rose by 1.6%.
 
Conventional hydropower accounted for 8.21% of net electrical generation during the first nine months of 2011 - an increase of 29.6% compared to 2010. Non-hydro renewables accounted for 4.52% of net electrical generation (wind - 2.73%, biomass - 1.34%, geothermal - 0.40%, solar - 0.05%). Compared to the first three quarters of 2010, solar-generated electricity expanded in 2011 by 46.5%; wind by 27.1%, geothermal by 9.4%, and biomass by 1.3%.
 
“Notwithstanding the recession of the past three years, renewable energy sources have experienced explosive rates of growth that other industries can only envy,” said Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY Campaign. “The investments in sustainable energy made by the federal government as well as state and private funders have paid off handsomely underscoring the short-sightedness of emerging proposals to cut back on or discontinue such support.”

# # # # # # # #

The U.S. Energy Information Administration released its most recent "Monthly Energy Review" on December 23, 2011.  It can be found at: http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/index.cfm.  The relevant charts from which the data above are extrapolated are Tables 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 10.1.  EIA released its most recent "Electric Power Monthly" on December 16, 2011; see: http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/pdf/epm.pdf. The relevant charts are Tables 1.1, ES1.A, ES1.B, and 1.1.A.

From the New York Times:

The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, whose four fellow commissioners complained about him to the White House, saying that he had been withholding information from them and wielding too much power, drew a spirited defense on Wednesday from a predecessor at the agency.

Peter A. Bradford, who was a commission member from 1977 to 1982, was speaking with reporters in a conference call on another topic, whether the recent approval of a new reactor design by the commission represented a major step toward a “nuclear renaissance.” (It doesn’t, he said.)

Mr. Bradford never led the Nuclear Regulatory Commission but can be considered an expert on multimember agencies; he later served as the chairman of the public utility commissions of New York State and Maine.

In the course of the call, Mr. Bradford said that the four commissioners were trying to give the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s chairman, Gregory B. Jaczko, “a push toward the door.”

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Forthcoming Meeting with Exelon Generation Company, LLC, and Entergy Operations, Inc. to Discuss Steam Generator Inspection Results at Three Mile Island, Unit 1 and Arkansas Nuclear One, Unit 1

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THREE MILE ISLAND NUCLEAR STATION, UNIT 1 (TMI-1) - THIRD INSERVICE INSPECTION INTERVAL RELIEF REQUESTS RR-11-01 AND RR-11-02 (TAC NOS. ME5670 AND ME5671)

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Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Units 2 and 3 – Supplemental Information Needed for Acceptance of Requested Licensing Action Re: Use of Neutron Absorbing Inserts in Units 2 and 3 Spent Fuel Pool Storage Racks (TAC Nos. ME7538 and ME7539)
 
ADAMS Accession No.: ML113260295

G20110262/EDATS: OEDO-2011-0269 - Acknowledgment Letter Regarding 2.206 Petition of April 13, 2011 from Paul Gunter to Immediately Suspend OLs of GE BWR Mark I Units

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                             Testimony of Eric Joseph Epstein
          Before the Susquehanna River Basin Commission  
                                    December 15, 2011
                                   __________
  Re: PPL’s Conceptual Proposal to Develop and Implement           
        A Corporate Storage Asset Pool for Consumptive Use                            
          Mitigation  Presented to the SRBC on June 23, 2011

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Regulatory Meltdown: How Four Nuclear Regulatory Commissioners Conspired to Delay and Weaken Nuclear Reactor Safety in the Wake of Fukushima

Prepared by the Staff of Congressman Edward J Markey (D-MA)

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From Huntington News:

Although the initial accident took place in the Spring, the reactors at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant again have mounting pressure from hydrogen. Workers are trying to reduce the pressure by spraying nitrogen. Should hydrogen levels go too high, additional explosions could occur. This Youtube video is based on a release from Toyko Electric Power.

In late October, Tokyo Electric Power Company began extracting gases from the containment vessel of the No.2 reactor to remove radioactive substances. During the work, TEPCO found hydrogen accumulating in parts of the reactor at a density of up to 2.9 percent.

TEPCO started pumping nitrogen into the pressure vessels of the No.1, 2, 3 reactors on Thursday to lessen the concentration of hydrogen.

The density of hydrogen accumulating in the containment and pressure vessels is thought to be below 4 percent, the level where an explosion could occur.

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From Huntington News:

Although the initial accident took place in the Spring, the reactors at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant again have mounting pressure from hydrogen. Workers are trying to reduce the pressure by spraying nitrogen. Should hydrogen levels go too high, additional explosions could occur. This Youtube video is based on a release from Toyko Electric Power.

In late October, Tokyo Electric Power Company began extracting gases from the containment vessel of the No.2 reactor to remove radioactive substances. During the work, TEPCO found hydrogen accumulating in parts of the reactor at a density of up to 2.9 percent.

TEPCO started pumping nitrogen into the pressure vessels of the No.1, 2, 3 reactors on Thursday to lessen the concentration of hydrogen.

The density of hydrogen accumulating in the containment and pressure vessels is thought to be below 4 percent, the level where an explosion could occur.

Read article