U.S. Government Exceeds its Goal for Renewable Energy Use

November 3, 2005

The federal government exceeded its goal of obtaining 2.5 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by the end of September, according to figures released on November 3rd by DOE. As the largest energy consumer in the nation, the federal government now uses 2,375 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy per year. That represents a nearly 14-fold increase in renewable energy use since 1999, when an Executive Order set the goal. Today, the federal government's annual use of biomass, geothermal, solar, and wind power is enough to power 225,000 homes or a city the size of El Paso, Texas. See the DOE press release.

The federal government now has a new goal to meet, as the Energy Policy Act of 2005 requires the government to obtain 7.5 percent of its electrical power from renewable sources of energy by 2013. A key facilitator for that goal is the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), a part of the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy that helps federal agencies employ renewable energy by purchasing green power or deploying renewable technologies. As a result, solar panels, wind turbines, and thousands of geothermal heat pumps have been installed at federal facilities across the nation. See the FEMP Web site.