Solar Demand

In 1985, there was only 21 megawatts, while in 2008, the demand increased by over 5,900 megawatts from 2,826 MW installed during the previous year.

Solar

The sun could theoretically produce enough energy in 1 hour than the world uses in a year. The only problem is that we would have to cover the entire earth in silicon cells. While this is near short of impossible, Japan makes 39% of solar panels, and Germany is now has the second largest demand for solar energy.

Biofuel

While many scientists question the effectiveness of corn-based ethanol, algae can still be used to generate fuel for our cars within short periods of time, by changing it's genetic structure.

Wind Production

All together, wind machines in the United States generate 17 billion kWh per year of electricity, enough to serve 1.6 million households. This is enough electricity to power a city the size of Chicago, but it is only a small fraction of the nation's total electricity production, about 0.4 percent. The amount of electricity generated from wind has been growing fast in recent years, tripling since 1998.

Coal Energy Production

Coal had 1,374 plants producing and using coal around the United States, a number that has only grown. However, we still needed to import 34,207,679 short tons of coal in 2008. Coal accounts for approximately 51% of energy production in the energy (2003).

Hydro Power

The world's hydropower plants output a combined total of 675,000 megawatts, the energy equivalent of 3.6 billion barrels of oil according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Geothermal Production

Along with having 33 geothermal power plants, California produces 90% of the nation's geothermal energy with the other geothermal plants being in Nevada (14), Hawaii, and Utah (1 each)