Renewables rising...

The latest figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) show that the ascendancy of renewable energy is becoming more real by the month. According to EIA, the amount of all forms of renewable energy produced in the United States increased by 5.9 percent in 2008. Non-hydro renewables such as wind and solar fared the best, with solar enjoying a 36.1 percent jump and wind energy increasing by an impressive 51 percent. http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/epm_sum.html. What does it all mean? Primarily that renewables are just beginning to establish a foothold in the energy marketplace, and the increasingly expensive natural gas and coal-fired electricity -- which aren't going away -- are going to have some company in utility portfolios. Still, non-hydro renewables (solar, wind, biomass, biogas, geothermal) only make up about 3 percent of the nation's total energy production, so there is a long way to go before we have a balanced energy supply in the United States.