EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A revolution is transforming how the US produces, delivers, and consumes energy. The mix of supply is changing rapidly, with low-carbon sources gaining share, while consumption is declining, despite overall economic growth.
The Sustainable Energy in America Factbook provides a detailed look at the state of US energy and the role that a range of new technologies are playing in reshaping the industry. First published in January 2013, the Factbook is researched and produced by Bloomberg New Energy Finance and commissioned by the Business Council for Sustainable Energy. This represents the second edition of the Factbook.
In some cases, developments in 2013 cemented trends depicted in the first report. New technologies – such as techniques for extracting natural gas from shale and vehicles fueled by electricity – continue to gain traction. New investment dollars continue to find opportunities – such as residential solar installations on residences and commercial building energy efficiency improvements – that profitably enable this transformation. For some sectors, such as distributed generation and storage, policy continues evolving to accommodate changing conditions or accelerate these changes.
In other cases, 2013 marked a departure. Total energy consumed (up relative to 2012), the amount of emissions associated with that energy consumption (up), the portion of electricity generation from coal (up), and the amount of new investment into renewable energy (down) all bucked longer-term trends. The Factbook explains these changes and highlights why some likely are temporary deviations while others could represent a new trajectory for at least the next several years.
The goal of the Factbook remains the same: to offer simple, accurate benchmarks on the status and contributions of new sustainable energy technologies.
What’s unique about this Factbook:
• The report is quantitative and objective, intended to arm policy-makers, journalists, and industry professionals with up-to-date, accurate market intelligence.
• It examines ‘clean energy’, broadly defined. The Factbook takes the pulse of the wide range of clean energy industries represented by the Council, including natural gas, renewable energy sources, distributed power, and energy efficiency.
• It fills important data gaps. For example, data sources and economic models of the US energy industry often fail to capture the full contribution of sectors such as distributed generation. This Factbook seeks to quantify accurately some sectors that are currently small but growing rapidly.
For more information, please visit the Factbook portal on the BCSE website: http://www.bcse.org/sustainableenergyfactbook.html