Report Highlights Renewable Energy Potential in the Southeast

A newly released report by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy finds the Southeast has an ample variety of renewable energy resources - more than enough to meet the federal renewable electricity standards (RES) that are now being considered in Congress. The report, entitled Yes We Can: Southern Solutions of a National Renewable Energy Standard, says utilities across the region could tap sufficient amounts of renewable energy to provide 15 percent of electricity by 2015 and 25 percent by 2025.

On Capitol Hill, some members of Congress have raised concerns that the Southeast may not have enough renewable resources to meet a national RES, that compliance with the standard would place unsustainable pressure on biomass resources in the region, and that such a standard would impose an unfair burden on the region's rate-payers. This study addresses these concerns. While biomass would likely play a large role in meeting the RES standards in the near-term, the region has an abundance of other clean energy resources, such as offshore wind, marine, and solar energy, to meet the long-term RES goals.

A national RES, which would require electricity providers obtain a minimum percentage of power from renewable energy, is high on the agenda of both the Obama Administration and leaders of the House and Senate. Addressing regional concerns such as these are considered critical to enacting a national RES. “Our analysis shows that the Southeast can meet the renewable energy goals President Obama has called for,” said John Wilson, author of the report and research director of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

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