Over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the United States developed a wealthy society on the basis of cheap and abundant fossil fuel energy. As fossil fuels have become ecologically and economically expensive in the twenty-first century, America has shown mixed progress in transitioning to a more sustainable energy system. From 2000 to 2006, energy and carbon intensity of GDP continued favorable long-term trends of decline. Energy end-use efficiency also continued to improve; for example, per-capita electricity use was 12.76 MWh per person per year in 2000 and again in 2006, despite 16 percent GDP growth over that period. Environmental costs of U.S. energy production and consumption have also been reduced, as illustrated in air quality improvements. However, increased fossil fuel consumption, stagnant efficiency standards, and expanding corn-based ethanol production have moved the energy system in the opposite direction, toward a less sustainable energy system. This chapter reviews energy system developments between 2000 and 2006 and presents policy recommendations to move the United States toward a more sustainable energy system.

A portion of missionary Stephen Lloyd Smith's unpublished autobiography, "In God's Hands," depicting the experience of his family as civilian internees of the Japanese in the Philippines during World War II.

Wind Power Today is an annual publication that provides an overview of the U.S. Department of Energy's Wind Energy Program accomplishments for the previous year. The purpose of Wind Power Today is to show how DOE's Wind Energy Program supports wind turbine research and deployment in hopes of furthering the advancement of wind technologies that produce clean, low-cost, reliable energy. Content objectives include: educate readers about the advantages and potential for widespread deployment of wind energy; explain the program's objectives and goals; describe the program's accomplishments in research and application; examine the barriers to widespread deployment; describe the benefits of continued research and development; facilitate technology transfer; and attract cooperative wind energy projects with industry. This 2001 edition of Wind Power Today also includes discussions about wind industry growth in 2001, how DOE is taking advantage of low wind speed regions through advancing technology, and distributed applications for small wind turbines.

The Department of Energy's Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) established the Distributed Energy Resources (DER) Program to assist Federal agencies in implementing DER projects at their facilities. FEMP prepared this How-To Guide to assist facility managers in evaluating potential applications and benefits. It provides step-by-step advice on how to carry out a Federal DER project. It also describes and explains DER applications and potential benefits in Federal facilities; DER technologies and how to match them to applications; a step-by-step approach to implementing projects; potential barriers and how to overcome them; and resources to assist you in implementing new DER projects.

This outreach publication highlights milestones and accomplishments of the DOE Geothermal Technologies Program for 2003. Included in this publication are discussions of geothermal fundamentals, enhanced geothermal systems, direct-use applications, geothermal potential in Idaho, coating technology, energy conversion R&D, and the GeoPowering the West initiative.

The International Conference on Solar Concentrators for the Generation of Electricity or Hydrogen provides an opportunity to learn about current significant research on solar concentrators for generating electricity or hydrogen. The conference will emphasize in-depth technical discussions of recent achievements in technologies that convert concentrated solar radiation to electricity or hydrogen, with primary emphasis on photovoltaic (PV) technologies. Very high-efficiency solar cells--above 37%--were recently developed, and are now widely used for powering satellites. This development demands that we take a fresh look at the potential of solar concentrators for generating low-cost electricity or hydrogen. Solar electric concentrators could dramatically overtake other PV technologies in the electric utility marketplace because of the low capital cost of concentrator manufacturing facilities and the larger module size of concentrators. Concentrating solar energy also has advantages for th e solar generation of hydrogen. Around the world, researchers and engineers are developing solar concentrator technologies for entry into the electricity generation market and several have explored the use of concentrators for hydrogen production. The last conference on the subject of solar electric concentrators was held in November of 2003 and proved to be an important opportunity for researchers and developers to share new and crucial information …