This industry encompasses energy deriving sources as well as fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, renewable and alternative sources, electricity demand and supply, energy from waste management, minerals, mining and utilities markets. We have a collection of research reports on wide areas of energy and utilities derived through primary research and data on market segmentation and competitive benchmarking. It also includes renewable energy resources like solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, ocean thermal energy conversion, tidal, biomass and biofuels. The reports here also cover technologies and component manufacturing linked to them that has been gaining importance in the recent years.

Government has been supporting largely towards renewable energy initiatives due to concern for the environment, increase independence and security via country’s own generation capacity. There are many strategies proposed by the government and organizing bodies such as associations for reducing the climate change due to impacts of fossil fuel consumption. One of the most important near-term strategies for reducing CO2 emission from fossil-fired power generation is to maximize the efficiency of new and existing plants. Governments are pursuing cleaner fossil fuel strategies to address the expected increased use of fossil fuels worldwide. According to the international energy association fossil fuels will continue to show a strong growth over the next 20 years particularly in the electric power sector. Others areas of energy development includes policies for energy efficiency, energy diversification (electricity, natural gas, coal, renewable energy sources) and the integration of environmental concerns into energy policies.

Greenhouse gases and CO2 in particular have risen to the top of the list of energy sector’s environmental impacts, as the source of human-made climate change.

Subsidies, pay-in-tariff’s, loan guarantees and other schemes have blown wind and solar energy production by leaps and bounds. Alternate energy sources like nuclear, shale gas and energy efficiency measures like LED and  OLED lightening, recycling and reuse of water and desalination are all part of the energy solution. Coal is another widely used combustible fossil fuel that is used very widely for energy generation purpose due to its abundance and low cost.

The first power plants were run on water power or coal, and today we rely mainly on coal, nuclear, natural gas, hydroelectric, and petroleum with a small amount from solar energy, tidal harnesses, wind generators, and geothermal sources. Nuclear fission is another process for energy generation but can be quiet expensive.

Coal is the most highly consumed fossil fuel for energy generation in the world followed by oil and gas. This is followed by Hydro energy, nuclear energy, wind energy, bio-mass, energy from waste, geo-thermal, solar photovoltaic cells, solar thermal, tide energy and others. USA ranks first in energy production from renewable energy followed by China, Japan, Russia, India, Canada and Germany.

The term utilities refers to two things the organization that provides a crucial infrastructure service or the service itself. Electricity, sewage, natural gas, electricity, telephones, cable TV, internet, general utilities and water are all utilities just as an electric company, natural gas company, sewage management company and water company are utilities. Such companies are subjects of many controversial debates related to utility regulation and public control. The share holding pattern and governing authority for each of these differs i.e. municipal utilities are publicly owned (POU/POU’s), corporative utilities (co-ops) are owned by consumers served by utilities and private utilities are investor owned (IOU/IOUs). More and more deregulation, liberalization and privatization of public sector is on the rise, though the networks to get such utilities to the public.

Government has always had a upper hand on utilities in-fact monopoly, for example this is beneficial to the public when a private company’s control of such utilities is unfavorable to needs of public.  Deregulation has resulted in greater eligibility for private sector towards participation in utility industry services, like power generation operations among independent power producers (IPPs) rather than just companies providing traditional electricity utility services. There are many companies who are in favor of private control of utilities given some key advantages, such as better professionalism while servicing customers and handling queries and complaints, process expansion, market stabilization and increased competition between providers while results in better deals for customers.

Current Energy & Utilities Industry Size

As of 2010, about 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is used for heating, and 3.4% from hydroelectricity. New renewables (small hydro, modern biomass, wind, solar, geothermal, and bio-fuels) accounted for another 2.8% and are growing very rapidly. Energy consumption per capita to 2030 is likely to grow at about the same rate as in 1970- 90 (0.7% p.a.).

World primary energy consumption grew by 45% over the past 20 years and it is likely to grow by 39% over the next 20 years. According to research global energy consumption growth averages 1.7% p.a. from 2010 to 2030, with growth decelerating gently beyond 2020.

It is expected that Non-OECD energy consumption is 68% higher by 2030, averaging 2.6% p.a. growth from 2010, and accounts for 93% of global energy growth. Non-OECD energy consumption is 68% higher by 2030, averaging 2.6% p.a. growth from 2010, and accounts for 93% of global energy growth.

OECD energy consumption in 2030 is just 6% higher than today, with growth averaging 0.3% p.a. to 2030 (expected). According to research 2020, OECD energy consumption per capita is on a declining trend (-0.2% p.a.). Renewable energy (including biofuels) account for 18% of the growth in energy to 2030.

Energy consumption soared by 5% in 2010, after a slight decrease in 2009. Though China and India, that continued to show no signs of slowing down in 2009, continued their intense demand for all forms of energy. Top energy consumption industrial sectors are agriculture, mining, manufacturing and construction that consume about 37% of the 15TW. Personal and commercial transportation consume 20%; residential heating lighting and appliances use about 11% and commercial uses (lighting, heating and cooling of commercial buildings, and provision of water and sewer services) amount to 5% of the total.