Energy is one of the basic needs of households and industrial enterprises. Energy industry accounts for largest share in an economic as well as social development of any country. On the basis of source, energy industry mainly includes coal, oil, natural gas, uranium and nuclear, hydropower, bio-energy, solar, geothermal, wind and marine energy. Energy industry utilizes available resources to generate easy to accessform of energy mainly electricity and fuels. Cater to growing needs of customers coupled with rapid urbanization is increasing energy demand across the world. The past 15 years have seen extraordinary change in the consumption of energy resources. Unexpected high growth in the renewables market, in terms of investment, new capacity and high growth rates in developing countries have changed the landscape for the energy sector.

Rising demand for cleaner energy to reduce environmental impact is shifting attention towards use of non-conventional energy sources over conventional energy sources. 

Opportunities

Coal, Oil and Natural gas industry dominated other energy industries in last few years as they are contributing more than85% in primary energy producers. According to world energy council, crude oil is the world’s leading fuel, accounting for 32.9% of global energy consumption. Crude oil prices recorded the largest percentage decline of 73% since 1986.Natural Gas is the second largest energy source which contributes 22% ofpower generation across the globe. Though coal consumption is reduced due to global climate impact and transition towards clean energy sources, it holds 40-45% share in global electricity generation. Asia-Pacific is the largest coal consumption market due to bulk availability of resources.

Solar industry delivers only 1% in global electricity generation. The price of solar panels decrease by 30% in the international market in 2016. Major installation of solar panel has been done in the Europe, China followed by Africa and Middle East region. Continuous improvement in the conversion efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) cells, concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) may hold the key in enabling rapid increases in solar energy efficiency, which has recently reached up to 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 globally, supplying 71% of all renewable electricity. The global hydropower capacity increased by more than 30% in last 15 years. Global wind power generation reached around 7% of total global power generation capacity and 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 with 14% out of 18% renewables in the energy mix and supplies 10% of global energy supply.

Parris agreement to tackle climate changes, rising demand and growth of renewable energy sources over non-renewable energy sources, falling global oil market price, decreased coal consumption due to less energy intensive society, shale gas boom along with implementation of CCS technologies in North America, growing global electrification, rapidly fallingprices for solar and wind power generation are major key drivers in shaping and supply of energy usage in global energy market. 

Energy - Regulatory scenario

• Parris 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 Generation Companies, 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 over the medium to long term. Incentive-assisted renewable energy companies have created a boom in certain countries and regions. However, as incentives are decreased, some companies might not be viable anymore.
• Rare earth elements, used in especially renewable energies, 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.
• Increased use of natural gas combined with decreased use of coal will see energy-associated carbon dioxide emissions from natural gas surpass those from coal.
• Renewable energy industries are still struggling to maintain moderate energy cost due to high production and technology cost.
  

Energy – Key Global Conferences

• International Conference on Renewable Energy and ResourcesJuly 24-25, 2017 (10 Plenary Forums - 1Event) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
• 2017 International Conference on Power and Energy Engineering (PEENG 2017)
  13th September 2017Ottawa, Canada
• 2017 the 7th International Conference on Power and Energy Systems (ICPES 2017)1st November 2017Toronto, Canada
• 2017 International Conference on New Energy and Applications (ICNEA 2017)--Ei Compendex and Scopus2nd November 2017, Tokyo, Japan
• 2017 International Conference on Advanced Energy Materials (ICAEM 2017)--SCOPUS, EI Compendex17th November 2017Singapore, Singapore
• 2017 6th International Conference on Power Science and Engineering (ICPSE 2017) - IEEE, Ei Compendex and Scopus2nd December 2017St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
• 4th International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICNSNT-2017)14th December 2017Colombo, Sri Lanka

 Key global players in Energy

Some of the leading key players in 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, Rosneft Oil.