World Leaders in Renewable Energy
Renewable energy production in the United States has grown 300% in the last ten years, but in many ways, the U.S. is behind its neighbors in the European Union when it comes to renewables.
While the U.S. used renewable sources to support almost 3% of electricity demand last year, this was only enough to rank the country #7 among G-20 countries according to reports.
Not surprisingly, Germany came in first. With its aggressive clean energy policies and subsidies as well as a commitment to abandon nuclear energy all together, that country used solar energy for 30% of its energy needs last year.
Here’s the rest of the top five (according to a Clean Technica report):
- Germany
- EU-27
- Italy
- Indonesia
- UK
Jake Schmidt, International Climate Policy Director for the Natural Resources Defense Council said in a statement that “unfortunately, the very policies that have increased our renewable energy supplies and reduced our dependence on dirty fossil fuels are now under fire in the United States and elsewhere.”
Schmidt says that if policies supporting renewable energy aren’t continued, thousands of jobs in the clean energy industry are at stake.
Click map above–courtesy of the NRDC, the U.S. Energy Information Administration and Bloomberg New Energy Finance–to enlarge and see more rankings by country.
