1. Renewable Data Overview

B. Data Characteristics and Caveats

The data included in these chapters is characterized by certain limitations. Appendix B details these limitations and provides information about the quality of renewable energy consumption data. In additions, some data may be different than that published in the Annual Energy Review 1994.(5) These differences generally fall into four categories:

  1. Wood. Biomass data for 1993 and 1994 wood energy consumption shown in this report have been revised to include estimates for the commercial sector.

  2. Geothermal. Geothermal energy consumption shown in this report is considerably higher than that shown in the Annual Energy Review 1994. This report revises the heat rate for geothermal energy in electricity applications from that used for fossil fuels (10,280 Btu per kilowatthour in 1994) to a heat rate appropriate for the average geothermal electricity-producing plant (20,914 Btu per kilowatthour). This change implies that about twice as much geothermal energy is used to generate electricity as previously reported.

  3. Electricity imports. In the Annual Energy Review 1994, hydroelectric consumption data included all net imported electricity. This report revises hydroelectric consumption to reflect only imported and exported electricity estimated to be from renewable sources (geothermal and hydroelectric). Precise data on exported renewable electricity are not available, but the plants that export electricity are known, and the EIA has used supplementary data to estimate exported kilowatthours.

  4. Revised calculations. Data shown in this report reflect information taken from a newly developed renewable energy database. The database ensures that all calculations are made to the same level of precision and that exact conversion factors are used in a consistent manner. As a result, some minor revisions have been made to data reported in the Annual Energy Review 1994.

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