The United States now generates eight times more energy from wind and solar than it did in 2007, a recent report by the Environment America Research and Policy Center said.
The report was co-authored by Frontier Group.
The report analyzes the renewable energy sectors over the past decade in the country. The United States now has enough renewable energy to power 25 million homes, the report notes, and Americans use 10 percent
less energy now than they did 10 years ago.
The report also discusses a 20-fold increase in battery storage of electricity and the growth of the electric vehicle market to almost 160,000 last year.
“Despite anti-science, anti-clean energy rhetoric coming from the Trump Administration and many in Congress, the science is clear – fossil fuels pollute our air, water and land, threatening our health and changing our climate even faster than scientists predicted,” Rob Sargent, energy program director for Environment America Research and Policy Center, said. “The good news is that the progress we’ve made in the last decade on renewable energy, energy savings and technologies such as battery storage and electric cars should give us the confidence that renewable energy can be America’s energy choice.”
According to the report, the United States had enough solar energy to power approximately 120,000 American homes in 2007. Today, it could power 5 million. Wind energy’s share of electricity increased from 0.8 percent of U.S. electricity in 2007 to 5.5 percent in 2016.
“Given the environmental benefits, clean, renewable energy should be the go-to option for businesses, utilities, governments and households across the country,” Sargent said. “It won’t be easy. But we have no choice. Every day, the urgency of our environmental challenges becomes clearer. That’s why we’re ready to work to move America to a future powered wit clean, renewable energy.”