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Renewable Energy Potential in Every U.S. State, Study Shows
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120801194337.htmScienceDaily (Aug. 1, 2012) — A new study of renewable energy's technical potential finds that every state in the United States has the space and resource to generate clean energy.
The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory produced the study, U.S. RE Technical Potential, which looks at available renewable resources in each state. It establishes an upper-boundary estimate of development potential. Economic or market restraints would factor into what projects might actually be deployed.
The report is valuable for decision-makers and utility executives because it compares estimates across six renewable energy technologies and unifies assumptions and methods. It 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.
The study includes state-level maps and tables containing available land area (square kilometers), installed capacity (gigawatts), and electric generation (gigawatt-hours) for each technology.