Almost 10 of this 12 percent is provided by hydroelectric resources alone. All other renewable resources, including geothermal, wind, and solar, together provide less than 1 percent of the total.
Many renewable resources are relative newcomers to the electric power market.
In particular, electricity generation using geothermal, wind, solar, and MSW resources have had their greatest expansion in the 1980's. This was a result of significant technological improvements, the implementation of favorable Federal and State policies, and the reaction to the increasing costs of using fossil and nuclear fuels. The use of renewable resources for electricity generation has also been encouraged as less environmentally damaging than fossil fuels. Because renewable energy is available domestically, renewable resources are viewed as more secure than imported fossil fuels. This report, Renewable Resources in the U.S. Electricity Supply, presents descriptions of the history, current use, and forecasted future applications of renewable resources for electricity generation and of the factors that influence those applications.