A Significant Drop in Energy Use and Intensity for Manufacturing Sector
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the total energy consumption in the manufacturing industry has decreased by 17 percent since 2002. Energy output for manufacturing decreased by 3 percent in the same amount of time.
Seeing such a large decline in energy use and intensity shows how the manufacturing sector is becoming more energy efficient, especially when fuel consumption of fuel has also declined for the industry.
Energy for manufacturing can be consumed as a fuel or as a feedstock (material input to a final product). Energy consumed as a fuel includes all energy used for heat and power. Energy used as feedstock is the use of energy sources for raw material input or for any purpose other than the production of heat or power.
U.S. manufacturing used over 14 quadrillion Btu of energy as a fuel in 2010, a decrease of 13 percent from the 2002 level. Fuel consumption in the five most energy-intensive subsectors accounted for 81 percent of fuel use in manufacturing. Two energy-intensive subsectors (petroleum and coal products, and food) showed 3.5 percent increases in their fuel consumption from 2002 to 2010.
Feedstock energy use in U.S. manufacturing accounts for more than 6 percent of all energy consumed in the country. Although nearly all manufacturers use energy as a fuel, 99 percent of feedstock energy use occurs in only three manufacturing subsectors: primary metals, chemicals, and petroleum and coal products.