North American Windpower: New NREL Maps Show Each U.S. State's Renewable Energy Potential

New NREL Maps Show Each U.S. State's Renewable Energy Potential

by NAW Staff Tuesday July 31 2012

A new study of the technical potential of renewable energy finds that every state in the U.S. has the space and resources to generate clean energy, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

The study, performed by NREL, looks at available renewable resources in each state. It establishes an upper-boundary estimate of development potential, and economic or market restraints would factor into what projects might actually be deployed.

The report shows the achievable energy generation of a particular resource (e.g., wind, solar, geothermal), system performance, topographic limitations, and environmental and land-use constraints.

The resource also includes state-level maps and tables containing available land area, installed capacity and electric generation for each technology.

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