Overall Renewable Energy usage has risen from 7% in 2006 to a little over 8% of the total in 2010.
That has marked a pretty steady increase over those 4 years for almost all sectors.
Amazingly the transportation sector has seen a tremendous rise in total usage going from 7% to over 13% in 2010. The use of Ethanol has been the main reason but there has been an overall doubling of renewables usage in this area. Pretty amazing.
This remains the fastest growing area of growth for alternative fuels and energy.
There has been a marked increase in usage but the main end use growth has been in the residential market.
Overall hydro electric power still dominates but it has seen its market share decline over the years due to the fact that almost all of the possible sources of this power have been tapped.
Also, the rise in wind energy usage has been phenomenal and thus is dwarfing the growth in the hydro electric industry. New wind farms and residential wind generators has accounted for the largest market share gain.
There has not really been a decline in hydro power, it is just that wind power has been growing so fast it is making water power take a back seat now, or soon will be.
Following closely on residential usage is the industrial users who are now accounting for 28% of the total renewable energy used, compared to 50% with the residential market. A very important fact is that industry is embracing this new technology and making the most of it.
Total consumption grew by 490 trillion BTU in 2010, that is a huge increase. Leading the way is Biomass and wind, while, as mentioned hydro usage has lagged.
One surprising fact in all of this is that solar energy usage grew by the most, but contributed the least in terms of energy usage? Yes, solar is very popular, but is it really making an impact in total renewable usage, not really?