Electricity generation from renewables in the United States: Resource potential, current usage, technical status, challenges, strategies, policies, and future directions

Abstract

In order to secure the energy future and protect the environment, the U.S. is looking for renewable resources to meet the increasing energy demands for its electricity sector (which accounts for ≈ 40% of total U.S. energy consumption in 2011). The overall aim of this article is to summarize the possible approaches that can be used to improve and optimize the utilization of renewables for electricity generation in the United States. First, an overview is presented about the resource potential, current usage, and technical status of electricity generation from renewables (in the United States). Second, a number of economic, operational, regulatory, sustainability, and technical challenges that are likely to be encountered are identified. Third, strategies are outlined that can be used to minimize costs, deal with the spatial nature of renewables, smooth temporal variations associated with intermittency, and achieve successful integration of electricity generated from renewable resources into the U.S. power grid. Fourth, a sustainability assessment framework for renewable resource deployment (for electricity generation in the U.S.) is discussed. The framework considers multiple criteria (including cost, environmental and social impacts), thus giving a comprehensive assessment of each renewable energy resource (for electricity generation in the United States). Fifth, the current U.S. renewable energy policy is analyzed, and rigorous recommendations are made for optimizing future U.S. renewable energy policy that can permanently induce a long-term sustainable shift towards electricity generation from renewables. Finally, directions for future research are highlighted.