by Brianna Crandall — August 20, 2012—A new study of renewable energy’s technical potential finds that every state in the nation has the space and resource to generate clean energy. The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) produced the study, U.S. RE Technical Potential, which looks at available renewable resources in each state.
NREL’s report establishes an upper-boundary estimate of development potential in terms of resource, technical, economic, and market potential. Economic or market restraints would factor into what projects might actually be deployed, notes NREL.
The report is valuable for decision-makers, utility executives and energy modelers because it compares estimates across six renewable energy technologies and unifies assumptions and methods. End-users will also be able to see the potential for their area.
The study shows the achievable energy generation of a particular technology given resource availability—solar, wind, geothermal availability, etc.; system performance; topographic limitations; and environmental and land-use constraints. It includes state-level PowerPoint maps and tables containing available land area (square kilometers), installed capacity (gigawatts), and electric generation (gigawatt-hours) for each technology.
NREL intends to update the information frequently as it collects more data.
