Renewable energy sources: technology and economics

Renewable energy technologies are receiving increased attention as an attractive electricity supply option for meeting electric utility needs in the 1990s and beyond. The impetus for this growing attention is coming from the actions of Federal and state governments, environmental advocacy groups, state regulatory organizations, and from within the utilities themselves. A number of unique characteristics of renewable energy systems are driving this movement, including: diversity-frees the utility from the vulnerability dependence on any one source might foster; environmental-provides benefits by emitting few pollutants and displacing fossil fuel generation; modularity-enables utilities to better handle the risk of uncertain load growth predictions by using smaller size “modules”; and fuel independence-frees utilities from fluctuations in supply caused by international politics