Potential of Renewable Energy: An Interlaboratory White Paper

This white paper evaluates the present and projected performance status of renewable energy technologies and their potential contributions to the nation's energy requirements over the next four decades. It was prepared by a task force consisting of staff at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, andthe Solar Energy Research Institute (the task force leader) for the U.S. Dept. of Energy in support of DOE's National Energy Strategy. Its key findings include the following: (1) technical, economic and institutional constraints, not the availability of renewable resources, are the limiting factors on energy contributions from renewables; (2) the fraction of U.S. energy demands supplied byrenewables (8%) will grow only slowly without expanded support for renewable energy; (3) the extent of federal support can greatly influence the rate of expansion of renewables market share and the success of domestic industry in U.S. and world markets; and (4) expanded federal leadership can result in substantial diversification of the U.S. energy mix, reduce the environmental impacts of energysupply, and lessen the need for foreign energy resource imports.