Eight percent of the energy produced during the first six months of 2011 came from renewable energy sources such as biomass and biofuels, geothermal energy, solar power, wind energy and hydropower. According to data released by the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration renewable energy sources provided 4.687 quadrillion BTUs of energy, or 12.25 percent of the nation’s total. By comparison, renewables accounted for 11.05 percent of domestic production during the first half of 2010 and 10.50 percent during the first half of 2009.

When considering all energy sectors, including electricity, transportation and thermal, renewable energy production, including hydropower, has gone up some 15 percent when compared with the first six months of 2010, and by nearly 23 percent compared to the first half of 2009. Among sources of renewable energy produced in the first six months of this year, biomass and biofuels accounted for 46 percent, hydropower at 37 percent, wind energy at 13.4 percent, geothermal power at 2.33 percent and solar power at 1.22 percent.

In the electricity sector alone, the EIA says that renewable energy sources (biomass, geothermal, solar, water, wind) accounted for nearly 14 percent of net U.S. electrical generation from January through June of 2011, up 26 percent from the same period in 2010.