Energy is one of the basic needs of households and industrial enterprises. Energy industry accounts for the largest share in the economic as well as social development of a country. On the basis of source, the energy industry mainly includes coal, oil, natural gas, uranium and nuclear, hydropower, bio-energy, solar, geothermal, wind and marine energy. The energy industry utilizes available resources to generate easy access to energy (mainly electricity and fuels). The past 15 years have seen extraordinary changes in the consumption of energy resources due to urbanization. Unexpected growth in the renewables market in terms of investment and capacity, particularly in emerging economies is favoring the energy industry.

Rising demand for cleaner energy to reduce environmental impact has led to the adoption of non-conventional energy sources. 

Opportunities

The coal, oil and natural gas segments have dominated the energy market in the last few years by contributing a market share 85%. According to the World Energy Council, crude oil has the largest demand and accounts for 32.9% of the global energy consumption. Crude oil prices recorded the largest percentage decline of 73% since 1986. Natural gas is the second largest energy source which accounts for 22% of the overall power generated across the globe. Coal consumption has reduced due to global climate impact and there has been a transition towards cleaner energy sources which hold 40-45% share in the electricity generated across the globe. Asia Pacific is the largest coal consumption market due to bulk availability of resources.

Solar industry accounts for only 1% of the global electricity generated. The price of solar panels decreased by 30% in the international market in 2016. Majority of the installation of solar panels was witnessed in Europe, China, and Africa and Middle East. Due to continuous improvement in the conversion efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) cells, concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) segment is expected to lead to a rapid increase in solar energy efficiency which has recently reached 46% for solar cells. 0.5 GW global commercial marine energy generation capacity is established. The total theoretical wave energy potential is said to be 32 PWh/y, but it is heterogeneous and geographically distributed, technology costs for marine energy are still very high. Uranium and Nuclear production is increased by 40% in last 15 years due to rising demand of alternative resources. Two-third of global nuclear industry volume is in Asia-Pacific region. Hydropower is the leading renewable source for electricity generation, supplying 71% of the global renewable electricity. The global hydropower capacity increased by more than 30% in the last 15 years. Global wind power generation reached around 7% of the total global power generation capacity. The total investment in the global wind sector was US$ 109 billion in 2015. Geothermal global output is estimated to be 75 TWh for heat and 75 TWh for power, but is concentrated on geologic plate boundaries. Bioenergy is the largest renewable energy source and supplies 10% of the global energy supply.

Factors such as the Paris Agreement, rising demand and growth of renewable energy sources compared to non-renewable energy sources, falling global oil market price, decreased coal consumption due to a less energy intensive society, and shale gas boom along with implementation of CCS technologies in North America, growing global electrification, rapidly falling prices of solar and wind power generation are driving the growth of the global energy market.

Energy - Regulatory scenario

• Paris Agreement on International climate policy
• The Energy Policy Act (EPA), U.S.A.
• National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP)
• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
• Federal Energy Regulation Commission (FERC)
• Commodity Future Trading Commission (CFTC)
• The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) issued the first draft of the “Licensing Rules for Distributed Energy Resources (DER) and Microgrid Systems“ (DER Licensing Rules for brevity) as Addendum to the 2014 COC Revised Rules for the issuance of Certificate of Compliance (COCs) for energy generation, qualified end-users and entities with self-generation facilities on 07 June 2017
  

Key challenges in global energy industry

• Despite some notable progress, the rate of improvements towards cleaner energy is far slower than required to meet emissions targets. Increased commodity and energy price uncertainty, that results in higher risk, and larger investments with long lead times are less appealing.
• Without diversification and review of business models, national and internal oil and gas companies could struggle in the long term. Incentive-assisted renewable energy companies have created a boom in certain countries and regions.
• Rare earth elements create new dependencies in the value chain and could represent possible future barriers to growth.
• There is a significant need to balance other aspects of the Energy Trilemma such as environmental considerations, including increased resilience and security of supply. This is particularly important for long-term planning in short-term power operations, with the lack and lag of new, expanded, upgraded and smart infrastructure offering the potential to hinder new energy developments.
• Increasing use of natural gas combined with lesser use of coal would lead to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions from natural gas.
• The renewable energy market is struggling to maintain moderate energy cost due to high production and technology expenditure.
  

Energy – Key Global Conferences

• International Conference on Renewable Energy and Resources, July 24-25, 2017 (10 Plenary Forums - 1Event) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
• 2017 International Conference on Power and Energy Engineering (PEENG 2017), 13th September 2017, Ottawa, Canada
• The 7th International Conference on Power and Energy Systems (ICPES 2017), 1st November 2017, Toronto, Canada
• International Conference on New Energy and Applications (ICNEA 2017)--Ei Compendex and Scopus, 2nd November 2017, Tokyo, Japan
• International Conference on Advanced Energy Materials (ICAEM 2017)--SCOPUS, EI Compendex, 17th November 2017, Singapore
• 6th International Conference on Power Science and Engineering (ICPSE 2017) - IEEE, Ei Compendex and Scopus, 2nd December 2017, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
• 4th International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICNSNT-2017)14th December 2017, Colombo, Sri Lanka

 Key global players in Energy

Some of the leading key players in the global energy market are Duke Energy, U.S., Engie, SA, National Grid PLC, NextEra Energy, Inc., EDF SA, Enel Italy, Dominian Resources, Iberdrola SA, Southern Company, Georgia, Hanergy, China, Endesa SA, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, LukOil, and Rosneft Oil.View less