Biomass facts

According to the Energy Information Administration, a nonpolitical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, the use of biomass in this country will increase from the present 2.5 percent of the total to 3.1 percent in the year 2030. Other renewable energy – solar, wind and ethanol – is calculated to increase from the present 0.88 percent to 1.1 percent of total energy use. Not much. Hydropower will stay at about 3 percent of the total. In 1949, 14 percent of all energy produced in the U.S. was used to generate electricity; now the energy required to produce our electricity has increased to 49 percent of the total.