Conservation. Electricity production in the United States uses about 40 percent of primary energy, and of this amount, about 70 percent is waste or rejected energy. Overall, about 60 percent of U.S. primary energy is lost in waste or rejected heat. So we are not using energy terribly efficiently today. We are accustomed to think of conservation as a behavioral phenomenon: turning off lights, keeping down the thermostat, driving less, etc. But the greatest strides in conservation are those we can achieve technologically. We have an everyday example close at hand. Energy Star-qualified compact fluorescent lights (CFL), readily available at your local “big box” store, use at least two-thirds less energy than standard incandescent bulbs, last up to ten times longer, and save $30 or more over the bulb’s lifetime. If every U.S. household replaced just one bulb with a CFL, we could conserve enough power to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and cut greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing 800,000 cars from the road. DOE is supporting advanced conservation research in solid-state lighting, refrigeration, appliances, building technologies and vehicles—all of which can provide substantial gains in meeting energy demand without adding to greenhouse gas emissions. Bioenergy. Biofuels, in particular cellulosic ethanol and other fuels from biomass, constitute one of the most promising new sources of carbon-neutral energy. According to a joint DOE-USDA study, the United States is capable of producing 1 billion dry tons of biomass annually (agricultural and forestry wastes, grains and 55 million acres of perennial bioenergy crops)—enough for 60 billion gallons of ethanol per year, or about 30 percent of today’s transportation fuel usage—and continue to meet food, feed and export demands. Biofuels are essentially carbon-neutral: as plant feedstocks grow, they reabsorb the carbon dioxide emitted when biofuels are burned. Producing them cost-effectively will require major breakthroughs in the conversion process; today many scientists believe that the biotechnology revolution has put these breakthroughs within reach. DOE has committed $250 million over five years to fund two bioenergy research centers to undertake basic research on both microbes and plants with aim of achieving the transformational breakthroughs to make biofuels commercially viable on a major scale. Wind. Carbon-free, renewable energy from wind could provide up to 20 percent of our annual electricity demand. In 2005, the United States installed a record 2,431 megawatts (MW) of wind energy. Wind now produces 9,149 MW, enough to power 2.3 million homes. The top-of-the-line wind turbine is now rated at 6 MW (1 MW powers over 250 homes).