What types of energy are used in the US?

Up until recently US was the world's largest energy consumer but still only a small number of Americans actually knows what nation's energy use looks like, though majority knows that fossil fuels supply most of nation's energy demand.

In 2009, fossil fuels supplied around 84% of nation's energy demand, with 40% of this energy coming from petroleum (oil). On the other hand, coal, another member of the fossil fuel triad was the major source of US electricity accounting for around 49% of total US generated electricity. The third member of fossil fuel triad, natural gas, supplies around 23% of US energy demand, with many energy experts expecting natural gas share to grow in years to come, especially after the recent shale gas popularity.

These numbers imply that fossil fuels are still the most important energy sources in United States, and that renewable energy industry still has plenty to do in order to challenge oil, coal and natural gas.

When it comes to renewable energy sources in United States then it has to be said that hydropower and biomass are the two most dominant renewable energy sources in the world, though it also has to be said that wind power is lately experiencing the biggest growth of all renewable energy sources.

Hydropower currently statisfies around 7% and biomass around 4% of nation's energy demand. As said above wind power is currently the fastest growing renewable energy source in United States, and nation has even set a goal of achieving 20% of electricity coming from wind by 2020. If the current growth of wind power installations continues this goal should be achieved with relative ease, especially if US decides to develop strong offshore wind energy sector.

The much talked about solar power is still only making headlines in media instead of actually having significant impact in nation's energy use. Many Americans believe in solar power as the best possible renewable energy option but despite this solar power satisfies less than one percent of nation's energy demand. This is mostly because solar panels are still relatively expensive, and somewhat inefficient compared to efficiency of fossil fuels, which makes solar energy a too expensive renewable energy option for many Americans.

US is global leader in installed geothermal capacity but this doesn't mean much when it comes to energy use because geothermal energy currently meets less than 1% of nation's energy needs, which is way too little given the geothermal potential of some US states such as California and Nevada.

Given the current situation it is realistic to expect that fossil fuels will continue their dominance when it comes to nation's energy use because renewable energy needs time to develop desired efficiency and costs. Without reaching competitiveness in terms of efficiency and costs renewable energy cannot seriously challenge fossil fuels, even with the strong federal and local support.