The use of renewable energy can improve the security, diversity, and overall reliability of a municipality, state or national energy system. In many places, renewables can also ensure the vital link between electric reliability and economic security. However renewables can also provide solutions to larger environmental and social issues such as transport, waste management and indoor air quality, resulting in a healthier environment and a healthier people.

Integrated mobility is the provision of a variety of different transport services, moving people and products reliably, safely and with minimal impact on the environment. It enables more people to get where they need to go in a timely, cost effective manner, reduces the numbers of miles vehicles travel, and minimizes the amount of productive time lost due to traffic congestion. Municipal waste can be converted into electricity or heat.

SOLAR

Thanks in large part to the Energy Department’s investments and the work of its partners, rooftop solar photovoltaic panels in 2016 cost less than one percent of what they cost more than 35 years ago, enabling nearly one million households to go solar across the country.

Solar energy and the technologies that harness it are key to combatting climate change and lowering carbon pollution. Since 2009, the U.S. has increased solar electricity generation by more than twenty-fold thanks in part to Energy Department research and development that has helped lower the costs of solar technologies. In fact, between 2008 and 2014, the cost for solar photovoltaic module dropped from $3.57 per watt to about $0.71 per watt.

WIND POWER

Wind: In 2015, wind generated enough electricity to power 17.5 million average U.S. homes and saved the equivalent of 131.7 metric tons of carbon dioxide. Wind energy currently provides nearly 5% of the nation’s total electricity generation and is growing fast.

Wind is here to stay as a mainstream power source in the United States, providing 4.4 percent of total electricity generation. As of 2014, there were more than 65,000 megawatts of utility-scale wind power deployed across 39 states- enough to generate electricity for more than 16 million households. This upswing, thanks in part to Energy Department efforts to improve the performance and lower the costs of wind power technologies, has helped drop carbon dioxide emissions by more than 115 million metric tons in 2013 alone. According to the Energy Department’s Wind Vision report, it’s estimated that by 2050, wind energy can help offset 12.3 gigatonnes if greenhouse gases equivalent to $400 billion in avoided carbon emissions at current global economic values.

Image: National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

PASSIVE DESIGN

Buildings account for nearly 40 percent of the nation’s man-made carbon dioxide emission, 18 percent of the nitrogen oxide emissions, and 55 percent of the sulfur dioxide emissions. Improving the efficiency of America’s homes and commercial buildings through Energy Department-supported innovations like high-tech windows, heating and cooling systems and lighting can play a big role in slashing these emissions. Building efficiency improvements will also help the nation achieve its goal of reducing energy-related greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent by 2020.

Image: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.