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New York to meet its energy requirements solely from renewable energy

According to a latest study, researchers claim that New York can depend on non-conventional sources of energy in its entirety around 17 years from now. Well, this would be easier said than done looking at the state’s present situation. New York does rely on wind, sunlight and water to power up itself but fulfilling such massive amounts of energy needs definitely requires determination and dedicated efforts. The study, kick-started by the researchers at Cornell and Stanford universities, explains how the people of New York can meet their energy needs from these sources by the year 2030. In order to achieve this goal, New York needs to make substantial investments in solar panels, wind turbines and similar others.

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New York has been treading on the green path for quite a significant number of years now. The George Pataki Government had started a program around nine years back and had committed to power as much as 25 percent of the state’s electricity via renewable sources by 2013. However, in the year 2010, the goal was modified to produce around an annual 10.4 million megawatt hours of energy from renewable sources by 2015. If we talk about its progress, its completion rate is 46 percent.

 

Skeptics feel that with the current rate of progress, it will be extremely tough for the state to meet its target by 2015. At present, approximately 20 percent of the power is generated from hydro energy excluding the imported power. Wind energy shares 2 percent and other non-conventional sources account for another 2 percent, if the 2011 statistics are to be believed. However, the situation is not very grim today; New York generates as much as 1600 megawatts of wind capacity compared to 48 megawatts a decade back. Researchers of the study strongly feel that the state could get about half of its energy from wind sources if challenges are met.

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Well, with the present situation and taking into account the political agenda and most importantly the market forces, only time will tell whether New York can completely rely on renewable sources of energy. There are huge costs involved and moreover, the state of federal tax credit remains uncertain.

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