____ Renewable energy sources such as solar energy can be tapped very easily and conveniently for domestic use by individual home owners.

Renewable energy sources can be replenished in a short period of time. The five renewable sources used most often include hydropower (water), solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass. Renewable energy's impact on the world's energy picture is significant. Many important events have occurred during the history of using renewable sources to generate electricity--but the overall consumption from renewable energy sources has declined by about 15 percent from their I996 peak to about 6 quads in 2005.

The use of renewable energy is not new. Five generations (125 years) ago, wood supplied up to 90 percent of our energy needs. Due to the convenience and low prices of fossil fuels, wood use has fallen. Now, the biomass which would normally present a disposal problem is converted into electricity (e.g., manufacturing wastes, rice hulls, and black liquor from paper production).

Historically, low fossil fuel prices, especially for natural gas, have made growth difficult for renewable fuels. The deregulation and restructuring of the electric power industry could have a major impact on renewable energy consumption. Demands for cheaper power in the short term would likely decrease demand for renewable energy, while preferences for renewables included in some versions of proposed electricity restructuring legislation would breathe new life into this industry.

Use of renewables in the United States is not currently expected to approach that of the major fuels, and due to their limitatious (e.g., their intermittent nature-cloudy days have no solar gain, quiet days mean no wind blows to drive wind turbines, dams are primarily for flood control, so hydroelectricity production varies as dams' water levels change), renewables may never provide "the" answer to all energy problems. Around the world, renewable energy is proving to be of great value.

In 2005, about 6.1 Quadrillion Btu (Quads) of U.S. energy came from renewable fuels. Each of the energy sources we use is measured, purchased, and sold in a different form. Many units of measurement are used to measure the energy we use each day.

From 1996 to 2005, the trend of the consumption from renewable energy was ______.

A．increasing

B．decreasing

C．irregular

D．not mentioned

Space-based solar power will rule out other forms of renewable energy sources．

A．Right

B．Wrong

C．Not mentioned

Space-based solar power will rule out other forms of renewable energy sources．

A．Right

B．Wrong

C．Not mentioned

Debate over the Use of Renewable Energy

Ausubel of Rockefeller University in New York, US says the key renewable (可再生的) energy sources, including sun, wind and biofuels, would all require vast amounts of land if developed up to large scale production - unlike nuclear power. That land would be far better (51) alone, he says. Renewables look (52) when they are quite small. But if we start producing renewable energy on a large (53) , the fallout (结果) is going to be horrible.

Ausubel draws his conclusions by analysing the amount of energy that renewables, natural gas and nuclei (原子核) can (54) in terms of power per square metre of land used. Moreover, he claims that (55) renewable energy use increases, this measure of efficiency will decrease as the best land for wind, biofuels, and solar power gets used up.

Solar power is much more (56) than biofuel in terms of the area of land used, but it would still (57) 150 square kilometres of photovoltaic (光电的) cells to match the energy production of the 1000 MW nuclear plant. In another example, he says (58) the 2005 US electricity demand via wind power alone would need 780,000 square kilometres, an area the (59) of Texas.

However, several experts are highly critical of Ausubel's (60) . John Turner of the US government's National Renewable Energy Laboratory says that even if the US got all of its (61) from solar energy, it would still need less than half the amount of land that has been paved over (62) highways. Further, it need not (63) up additional land. The US could get a quarter of its energy just from covering rooftops of existing buildings, he says.

According to Turner, the same "dual use" also (64) to wind power. "The footprint for wind is only 5% of the land that it (65) . Farmers can still farm the land that the turbines are on." Turner says looking solely at land use is an oversimplification of the issue.

A．owned

B．left

C．held

D．bought

Which of the following is INCORRECT?

A．Renewable energy has become the main form. of energy in the US.

B．Renewable energy include solar power, geothermal and hydropower.

C．There are still problems remaining to be solved in the use of renewable energy.

D．Renewable energy is valuable.

The world's demand on gas is expected to increase in the future as climate change concerns grow, while renewable energy is still expensive to be developed, a prominent economist said on Friday. "Demand on gas will be the fastest among other energy sources as it's cheaper than oil and people are more concerned about climate change issue," Cristof Ruhl, even Chief Economist of British Petroleum, a multinational oil and gas Company told the press. According to Ruhl, even though renewable energy is much more environmental friendly, it costs too much to be developed. "In Brazil, it's worth to use the bio-energy as the country is rich with bio-resources but it costs too much if it's implemented in other countries," said Ruhl.

However, he said, as technology becomes more advanced, it is not impossible that the renewable technology would be much cheaper. Currently, Ruhl said, the usage of solar, wind and geothermal energies only contribute 1.5 percent of the global energy consumption. "Renewable energy takes only small share of total energy consumption and for the most part, still requires government support. But from the small base, it continues to grow fast, with global deployment reflecting government support as well as natural endowment." said Ruhl. According to Ruhl,in contrast to all other fuels, growth in renewable energy was led by the OECD countries, where policy support is the strongest.

"But like other fuels, 2008 saw rapid growth in the first half followed by a marked deceleration towards the end of the year and into 2009," he said.

Which of the following sentences can be the best title of this passage?

A．How long shall we wait to use the renewable energy?

B．Renewable energy is getting cheaper as technology becomes more advanced.

C．Climate change concerns results in revolution on the use of energy.

D．Gas demand is to sharply increase as climate change concerns grow.