In 1949 the United States consumed 32 quadrillion BTUs of energy.   By 2013, our total energy consumption grew to almost 98 quadrillion BTU’s.  Per person, that is an average of 314 million BTU’s, almost 50% increase in per capita consumption.  Over that 64 year time span, that works out to an annual increase of 0.6%.  Considering all of the technology driven lifestyle changes that have taken place in those 7 decades, the increase actually seems pretty reasonable. 

What might surprise you is that throughout that entire time frame, renewable energy has played a role in powering our country.