This report, Renewable Energy Annual 1995, is the first in an expected series of annual reports the Energy Information Administration (EIA) intends to publish to provide a comprehensive assessment of renewable energy. In so doing, this report further documents and explains renewable energy information provided earlier in EIA's Annual Energy Review 1994.(1) It covers the following energy sources: biomass, geothermal, wind, and solar. While hydropower is a renewable energy resource, it is also regarded as a "conventional" energy source because it has furnished a significant amount of electricity for more than a century. Hydropower is a mature industry with little growth or change expected, and EIA provides substantial information on hydropower in its electricity publications. Therefore, this report discusses hydropower as it contributes to total renewable energy consumption but does not address hydropower as an individual energy source.(2)

This report includes a feature article, "Environmental Externalities in Electric Power Markets: Acid Rain, Urban Ozone, and Climate Change," that was previously published in EIA's November 1995 Monthly Energy Review.(3) The biomass sections of this report include updated information similar to that published in EIA's Estimates of U.S. Biomass Energy Consumption 1992.(4) The solar sections include updated information from material previously published in Solar Collector Manufacturing Activity 1993.(5) EIA has discontinued publishing the latter two reports.

The Energy Information Administration was established formally by the Department of Energy Organization Act (Public Law 95-91) in 1977. This legislation required EIA to carry out a comprehensive, timely, and accurate program of energy data collection and analysis. It also vested EIA with considerable independence in determining its mission and the data and analysis it chooses to present. After approval by the EIA Administrator, products are not subject to further review. However, because EIA believes that collaborative efforts produce the best results, external reviews of its products--such as this report--are solicited prior to approval both from other offices in the Department of Energy, other Federal agencies, and non-government experts. EIA remains the final judge of product content.

(1) Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Review 1994, DOE/EIA-0384(94) (Washington, DC, July 1995). (2) For more information on hydropower, see, for example, Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Annual 1994, Vol. 1, DOE/EIA-0348(94)/1 (Washington, DC, July 1995). (3) Energy Information Administration, Monthly Energy Review, DOE/EIA-0035(95/11) (Washington, DC, November 1995). (4) Energy Information Administration, Estimates of U.S. Biomass Energy Consumption 1992, DOE/EIA-0548(92) (Washington, DC, May 1994). (5) Energy Information Administration, Solar Collector Manufacturing Activity 1993, DOE/EIA-0174(93) (Washington, DC, August 1994).