Getting Serious About Clean-Energy Stimulus

clipped from www.renewableenergyworld.com It turns out that 2008 was another record year for clean energy. According to Clean Edge's just-released Clean Energy Trends 2009 report, the three major clean-energy sectors -- solar photovoltaics (PV), wind power and biofuels -- kept up a blistering growth rate, increasing 53 percent from $75.8 billion in 2007 to $115.9 billion in revenues in 2008. The report shows that this significant increase in revenue was due to continued growth in solar PV, wind and biofuels deployment globally. For example, solar PV expanded from 2.8 gigawatts (GW) installed in 2007 to 4.2 GW in 2008. Over the same time frame, biofuels increased from 15 billion gallons to nearly 20 billion gallons, with Brazil using more gallons of ethanol than petrol-based gasoline for the first time. Wind power expanded from 20 GW installed in 2007 to 27 GW in 2008, with the U.S. becoming the largest generator of wind energy in the world after bringing on nearly a third of last year's global total (8 GW).