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@Neil: I found some maps with insolation data. Lower Saxony is as dim as Seattle, Buffalo, or Lansing, but Bavaria only as dim as Virginia or the Texas coast. Still, if Germany were smart, they'd put their solar panels in Spain and run a HVDC intertie.
But if your point was that the US has enough wind, solar, and hydro resources to cover most of our energy needs, that's never been in dispute. What I do doubt is that we have the will to do it.
We're still putting up new coal plants, which will be with us for fourty years at least. In fact, the percentage of new generation capacity that is renewable DECLINED in 2009. This is a cause without a rebel.
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