Use of energy explained Energy use in industry

The United States is a highly industrialized country. In 2023, the industrial sector accounted for 35% of total U.S. end-use energy consumption and 33% of total U.S. energy consumption.¹

Energy sources used in the industry sector

The U.S. industrial sector uses a variety of energy sources:

• Natural gas
• Petroleum, such as distillate and residual fuel oils and hydrocarbon gas liquids (HGLs)
• Electricity
• Renewable sources, mainly biomass such as pulping liquids (called black liquor) and other residues from papermaking, agriculture, forestry, and lumber milling
• Coal and coal coke

Most industries purchase electricity from electric utilities or independent power producers. Industrial facilities also generate electricity for their own use by using residues from their industrial processes or from fuels that they purchase. For example, many paper mills have combined heat and power plants that can burn purchased natural gas, coal, and black liquor produced in their mills to generate heat and electricity. Some manufacturers even produce electricity with solar power systems located on their properties and will sell some of the electricity that they generate.

The industry sector uses fossil fuels and renewable energy sources for:

• Heat in industrial processes and space heating in buildings
• Boiler fuel to generate steam or hot water for process heating and electricity
• Feedstocks (raw materials) to make products such as plastics and chemicals

The industrial sector uses electricity for operating industrial motors and machinery, lights, computers, and equipment for office performance, facility heating, cooling, and ventilation.

Energy use by type of industry

Within the industrial sector, manufacturing accounts for the largest share of annual industrial energy consumption, generally followed by mining, construction, and agriculture. Mining includes extracting minerals, nonmineral products such as stone and gravel, coal, oil, and natural gas. Agriculture involves farming, fishing, and forestry. Manufacturing is the physical, mechanical, or chemical transformation of materials or substances into new products. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) makes projections for energy consumption by these four major industrial activities in the Annual Energy Outlook (AEO), which include the types and amounts of energy use by type of industry.

• Percentage shares of U.S. industrial energy consumption by the top four types of industries in 2023:
• manufacturing75%
• mining12%
• construction7%
• agriculture5%

The manufacturing industry categories in the AEO projections are generally consistent with the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) used in the Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey (MECS). EIA conducts the MECS every four years to collect detailed information on energy use and expenditures and other data by U.S. manufacturing establishments. In the 2018 MECS, the combined energy use by six energy-intensive manufacturing subsectors—chemicals, petroleum and coal products, paper, primary metals, food, and nonmetallic minerals products—was 87%, or 16.9 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu), of total manufacturing energy consumption. The three highest energy-consuming manufacturing subsectors—chemicals, petroleum and coal products, and paper—combined, accounted for nearly 70% of total manufacturing energy use in 2018.

Manufacturing energy consumption

Manufacturers consume two general types of energy sources—fuel and nonfuel. Fuel consumption is the use of combustible energy sources to produce heat and to generate electricity (mainly for their own use) and the use of electricity to operate equipment and associated manufacturing facilities. Nonfuel-energy sources are feedstocks (raw materials) that are used to make products. According to the 2018 MECS, fuel use accounted for about 68% and nonfuel-energy feedstocks accounted for about 32% of total first use of energy by U.S. manufacturers in 2018.

HGLs (excluding natural gasoline) accounted for 46% of total U.S. manufacturing nonfuel-energy feedstock use in 2018. HGLs are feedstocks for making plastics and chemicals. Natural gas, the next-highest manufacturing nonfuel-energy source, is a major feedstock for making fertilizer. Coal is typically used by metal manufacturers for making iron and steel, and the remaining 31% was used by petroleum and coal product manufacturers.

• Manufacturing nonfuel-energy feedstock use by type, amounts in trillion Btu (TBtu), and percentage shares of total nonfuel-energy feedstock use in 2018:
• HGLs2,834 TBtu46%
• natural gas958 TBtu16%
• coal425 TBtu7%
• other1,920 TBtu31%

Other feedstocks include coke and breeze and petroleum products, residual and distillate fuel oils, asphalt, lubricants, waxes, and petrochemicals. Manufacturers of chemicals, petroleum and coal products, and metal are the main consumers of nonfuel energy and feedstocks.

Last updated: January 8, 2025, with data available from source reports as indicated; data for 2023 are preliminary.