Energy Industry Trends & Overview

The Industry Today

The current and future direction of the energy industry is directly related to the demand for power and energy in the country. The Energy Information Administration predicts that world energy consumption will grow by 47 percent by 2050, with oil remaining the largest energy source just ahead of renewable energy. Electricity generation is predicted to increase at a conservative rate per year, yet energy consumption per capita will actually decline each year from 2017 to 2050 thanks to improved and more efficient technology and reduced use by consumers. (It also declined significantly in 2020 as a result of reduced usage in response to stay-at-home orders and other protective edicts issued during the COVID-19 pandemic.) Keep in mind, however, that the EIA’s projections assume there will be no further major changes in environmental and government regulations during this time. Predictions about short- and long-term prospects about energy supply and demand should be considered likely to change.

Fossil Fuels

Petroleum

Petroleum is used for many purposes worldwide. In the energy industry, its main uses are as fuel oil and gasoline. Nearly every country in the world relies on petroleum as fuel, gasoline for vehicles, and as a base ingredient of many industrial products. Developed countries use more petroleum than others, with the United States using approximately 25 percent of all the oil produced annually. The EIA reports that the United States consumed an average of about 20.28 million barrels of petroleum products per day in 2022.

Statista.com reports that the 10 largest American oil and gas companies based on market capitalization in October 2022 were:

ExxonMobil
Chevron
ConocoPhillips
EOG Resources
Occidental Petroleum
Schlumberger
Pioneer Natural Resources
Enterprise Products Partners
Marathon Petroleum
Valero Energy

Natural Gas

A clear and odorless gas, natural gas is extracted from underground deposits and transported through pressurized pipelines to local distribution companies that depressurize it, add odor to it, and deliver it to industrial, residential, and commercial customers. In 2019, 38 percent of natural gas was used to generate electricity, according to the EIA, up from 32 percent in 2017. In 2022, 40 percent of natural gas was used to generate electricity, according to the EIA, up from 32 percent in 2017. There were 916,934 oil and natural gas wells in 2021, down from 1,031,183 wells in 2014, according to the EIA. Texas and Pennsylvania are the top producers of natural gas energy. Some of the largest natural gas utilities based on market value in the world are:

Sempra Energy (United States)
Naturgy Energy Group (Spain)
Towngas (Hong Kong)
Atmos Energy (United States)
ENN Energy Holdings (China)
NiSource (United States)
GAIL India (India)
Tokyo Gas (Japan)
UGI (United States)
Osaka Gas (Japan)

Coal

In 2022, coal was used to generate 19.5 percent of all the electricity used in the United States, according to the EIA. Coal production has decreased significantly in recent years. Approximately 39,000 people are employed in the U.S. coal industry, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In 2021, the National Mining Association reports that Wyoming (41.6 percent of all U.S. production), West Virginia (13.6 percent), Pennsylvania (7.4 percent), Illinois (6.3 percent), Montana (4.9 percent), North Dakota (4.6 percent), and Kentucky (4.6 percent) were the states with the highest levels of coal production. In 2021, the leading hard coal producing countries were China, India, Indonesia, the United States, Australia, Russia, and South Africa, according to Statista.com. The EIA reports that the largest coal producers in the United States in 2021 were:

Peabody Energy Corp
Arch Resources Inc.
Navajo Transitional Energy Corp.
Acnr Holdings Inc.
Alliance Resource Partners LP
John McNabb Petri E Koivula Mike Jamison
NACCO Industries Inc.
CONSOL Energy Inc.
Foresight Energy Labor LLC
Alpha Metallurgical Resources Inc.

Although the use of coal is decreasing in the United States and other developing countries, its use will continue in countries that lack the political will to embrace alternative energy and where an inexpensive supply of coal is available. “A three-way race is underway among coal, natural gas, and renewables to provide power and heat to Asia’s fast-growing economies,” according to the IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2019. “Coal is the incumbent in most developing Asian countries: new investment decisions in coal-using infrastructure have slowed sharply, but the large stock of existing coal-using power plants and factories (and the 170 GW of capacity under construction worldwide), provides coal with considerable staying power.”

Renewable Energy

Wind Power

The use of wind to create power is rapidly increasing worldwide. Power is created through the construction and harnessing of very large wind turbines. Through Quarter I 2023, “wind and solar provided 232 GW of clean energy, over 15 percent of the country’s electricity and equivalent to powering over 62 million homes, according to the American Clean Power Association (ACPA). ACPA reports that U.S. wind power has more than tripled over the past decade, and today it is the largest source of renewable energy in the country. Approximately 10.2 percent of electricity was generated by wind power in 2022, according to the EIA. Nearly 126,000 people (including 24,000 wind manufacturing jobs at more than 500 facilities) work in the U.S. wind industry—which is one of the largest wind energy markets in the world. Jobs are available in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. The growing interest in wind energy systems is due to the fact that they do not generate air or water emissions; they do not produce hazardous waste; they do not deplete natural resources such as coal, oil, or gas; they do not cause environmental damage through resource extraction and transportation; and they do not require significant amounts of water during operation. There are some drawbacks to the use of wind energy. For example, installing wind power turbines is costly (although costs are decreasing rapidly), and wind is an unreliable resource, with turbines often functioning below capacity. Wind is also better suited to some regions than others depending on climate and geography.

One trend in the wind energy sector is the increasing construction of offshore wind farms in the United States as a result of advances in technology and decreases in construction costs. Approximately 57 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind are currently installed around the world, according to the Global Offshore Wind Alliance. By 2030, the alliance aims to help create a total a minimum global offshore wind capacity of 380 GW. Other trends include the use of floating offshore wind farms, which are connected to the bottom of the ocean by floating chains, rather than a stationary structure; the expansion of wind projects into freshwater lakes; the use of airborne wind turbines, which feature wind turbine technology in a helium-filled balloon, as a means to provide electricity to people who live in remote areas off an electric grid; and the development of bladeless turbine designs that reduce construction and maintenance costs. Vortex Bladeless says that “bladeless technology consists of a cylinder fixed vertically with an elastic rod. The cylinder oscillates on a wind range, which then generates electricity through an alternator system. In other words, it is a wind turbine which is not actually a turbine.”

Major international turbine makers include:

CRRC (China)
CSIC (China)
DEC (China)
Enercon (Germany)
Envision (China)
General Electric (United States)
Goldwind (China)
Minyang (China)
Nordex (Germany)
SANY (China)
SE Wind (China)
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (Germany/Spain)
Sinovel Wind (China)
Suzlon (India)
United Power (China)
Vestas (Denmark)
Windey (China)

Solar

Solar power consists of heat and light created by the sun. It is captured by photovoltaic cells. Solar power is one of the most-popular renewable energy resources in the United States and around the world. It is used to create electricity and heat for homes, factories, and other structures.

“There are now more than 149 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity installed nationwide, enough to power 26 million homes,” according to 2023, Quarter I data from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). More than 255,000 people worked in the U.S. solar power industry in 2021, according to the SEIA, more than twice the number in 2012. In 2021, about 40 percent of the solar photovoltaic workforce was female, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. This was much higher than female employment in oil and gas (22 percent) and the wind (21 percent) sectors. There are more than 10,000 solar companies in the United States, and they are located in every state. The top 10 states in 2022 by cumulative solar capacity were California, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, New Jersey, Virginia, and New York. Demand is growing for solar power because installation costs have decreased by 50 percent over the past decade. Major U.S. solar companies include:

Avangrid
Avantus
Cypress Creek Renewables
EcoPlexus, Inc.
First Solar, Inc.
Heliene
Itek Energy
Leeward Renewable Energy
Mission Solar
NextEra Energy
Panasonic
Recurrent Energy
Seraphim
Solaria
Solartech Power Inc.
Suniva
SunPower Corp.
SunPower Corporation
SunSpark
Sustainable Power Group
Tesla Energy Operations Tesla

Hydropower

Hydropower is energy extracted from moving water. Centuries ago, Greeks used falling water to power grinding wheels. In the 18th century, it was used extensively to power mills and pumps of the industrial revolution. Today, power is produced using falling water to power electrical turbines. To mitigate the unpredictability of precipitation, water is stored behind dams to better control the availability of electricity. Water is a source of cheap power and requires no imported fuel. Also, because there is no fuel combustion, there is little air pollution in comparison with fossil fuel plants. However, the building of dams can cause flooding and damage ecosystems.

Approximately 6.2 percent of electricity in the U.S. was generated by hydropower in 2022, according to the EIA. About 17 percent of total electricity production worldwide is created by hydropower. Countries that have the highest hydropower output include China, Canada, Brazil, the United States, Russia, India, and Norway. The U.S. Geological Survey reports that “untapped hydro resources are still abundant in Latin America, Central Africa, India and China.”

Approximately 200,000 to 300,000 people work in the U.S. hydropower industry, according to the National Hydropower Association, which says that “hydropower is the nation’s most available, reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy source.” Hydropower plants are located throughout the United States. Hydropower projects can be organized into two categories: large hydropower projects operated by the federal electric utilities and run by the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers, and nonfederal hydropower dams (about 2,600 in the United States), which are licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Biomass and Biofuels

Bioenergy is energy extracted from biomass, which includes any plant that is comprised of organic matter and available on a renewable basis. This includes dedicated energy crops and trees, agricultural food and feed crops, agricultural crop wastes and residues, wood wastes and residues, aquatic plants, animal wastes, municipal wastes, and other waste materials. Traditionally, conventional biomass comes from three distinct sources: wood, waste, and alcohol fuels. Wood is the largest source of bioenergy, followed by waste, which is derived from municipal solid waste, manufacturing waste, or landfill gases. Additionally, biomass alcohol fuel, or ethanol, derived almost exclusively from corn, is used to oxygenate gasoline.

It’s estimated that there are about 86,000 direct biomass/biofuel jobs in the United States. The U.S. Department of Energy reports that “as the industry expands beyond ethanol to include a wide range of advanced biofuels and bioproducts, additional jobs will be created. Recent publications provide analysis demonstrating that by 2030, there will be enough biomass to displace approximately 25 percent of all transportation fuels in the U.S., generating over a million direct jobs.”

Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy technologies harness the heat within the Earth. Geothermal resources range from shallow ground, to hot water and rock several miles below the Earth’s surface, to the extremely high temperatures of molten rock or magma further below. This energy can be put to different uses depending on the temperature of the fluid extracted.

It's estimated that anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 people are directly employed in the geothermal industry. The majority of geothermal employment opportunities in the United States are found where most geothermal reservoirs are located—in the western states, especially in rural areas. Geothermal electric power generation occurs in the following states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

Fuel Cells

Hydrogen is the most plentiful element on Earth and in the universe. It accounts for 90 percent of the universe by weight. It is not commonly found in its pure form, however, since it readily combines with other elements. It usually combines with oxygen in water, and in organic matter including living plants, petroleum, coal, natural gas, and other hydrocarbon compounds. One of hydrogen’s major assets is that it can be used in modified existing equipment such as reciprocating engines, turbines, and boilers with significant improvement in emissions performance; the fuel contains no carbon, therefore its combustion results in no carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide, although it can result in some nitrogen oxides under certain conditions. The cleanest way to utilize hydrogen and oxygen to produce power is through the use of a fuel cell, which the U.S. Department of Energy defines as “an electrochemical device that uses hydrogen and oxygen from the air to produce electricity, with water and heat as its by-products.” Fuel cells are highly efficient and are attractive alternatives to traditional fuels because they produce very little noise or air pollution. The fuel cells take the fuel source and convert it into electricity or heat. Many of these cells produce a by-product, which is usually water.

Fuel cells are used to provide primary and backup power to schools and hospitals, government offices, fire and police stations, prisons, wastewater treatment plants, and other buildings. They can also be used to power cars, buses, and other vehicles.

Employers of fuel cell technology workers include automotive manufacturers with hydrogen vehicle programs, companies that manufacture fuel cells and related technology, colleges and universities that conduct fuel cell and hydrogen research, merchant hydrogen producers, and government agencies that conduct research in the field (most significantly, the U.S. Department of Energy and its National Laboratories, and the National Fuel Cell Technology Evaluation Center).

According to State of the States: Fuel Cells in America 2016, “fuel cell power plants are located in at least 43 states, providing power to commercial and municipal operations.” California, Connecticut, and New York have the most stationary fuel cells. States identified as "rising stars" in the fuel cell industry include Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Ohio.

In late 2022, the United States “had about 205 operating fuel cell electric power generators at 147 facilities with about 350 megawatts (MW) of total nameplate electric generation capacity,” according to the Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. Department of Energy predicts that the growing incorporation of fuel cells in motor vehicles could create 675,000 new jobs by 2035.

Nuclear Power

The United States is the world's largest producer of nuclear power, according to the World Nuclear Association. Nuclear energy is used to create about 19 percent of electricity in the U.S., and more than 30 percent of worldwide nuclear generation of electricity. Worldwide, there are about 440 nuclear reactors in operation, and these reactors provide 10 percent of the world’s energy. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the top nuclear-generating countries in 2021 were the United States, China, France, Russia, South Korea, Canada, Ukraine, Germany, and Japan. In 2023, 42,333 people were employed in the U.S. nuclear industry, according to IBISWorld. In 2022, women comprised 24.9 percent of nuclear sector employment, according to Gender Balance in the Nuclear Sector, a report from the Nuclear Energy Agency that was based on data collected from more than 8,000 women in 32 countries in the nuclear workforce, as well as human resources data from 96 nuclear organizations in 17 countries. They were even less represented in high-level positions—holding fewer than 20 percent of upper management and executive positions, and about 20 percent of STEM positions.

On March 11, 2011, a devastating earthquake/tsunami hit Japan. It killed more than 22,000 people and caused serious damage to several nuclear reactors (creating dangerous levels of radiation). Before this event, there had been increasing interest by the public worldwide in nuclear power. Public attitudes changed after the disaster.

Although nuclear power remains controversial, the nuclear energy industry continues to provide emission-free electricity. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, there are 92 nuclear reactors in the United States located in 28 states. The states with the most nuclear energy reactors are Illinois (11), Pennsylvania (8), South Carolina (7), New York (5), North Carolina (5), Florida (4), Georgia (4), Texas (4), Virginia (4), Michigan (4), and Tennessee. Although the U.S. is the top nuclear-generating country in the world, the future of nuclear-generated electricity remains unclear because of public and government concerns about the risk of radioactive contamination. A 2023 Gallup poll found that 55 percent of Americans “strongly” or “somewhat” favored the use of nuclear energy to generate electricity. Another 44 percent of respondents “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed such use.

Major producers of nuclear energy in the United States include:

Constellation Energy Generation LLC
Dominion Energy
Duke Energy
Entergy
Exelon
First Energy
Next Era Energy
PG&E
PSEG
Southern Co.
Tennessee Valley Authority

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