The U.S. government, desperate to add jobs to a feeble economy, is looking skyward for help: to the wind and the sun.
"We should put more Americans to work building clean energy facilities," Obama said to applause during his State of the Union address Wednesday. Solar and wind power projects tend to appeal to politicians on both sides of the aisle. They are clean and domestic sources of power, and thanks to this government largesse, they are growing fast.
The American Wind Energy Association reported last week that in 2009 the nation's wind power grew 39%, and that it has grown by 39% annually for the past five years. It's a similar story with other technologies, like solar power, and abroad, where generous government subsidies in Europe and huge government-backed projects in India and China are fueling growth.
Of the top 10 largest renewable energy projects in the world, five were completed in the last two years.
In Depth: The World's Biggest Renewable Energy Projects
That's the good news for renewable advocates. The bad news: Renewable energy remains a stubbornly small percentage of both the United States' and the world's energy portfolio. In the U.S., renewable power is about 10% of the electricity mix--subtract hydroelectric power and we're down to just 3%. Worldwide, the share of energy from renewables is closer to 20%, with just 3% from non-hydro.
