Industrial Energy

In an earlier post (March 20, 2013) about the ways that energy is used (residential, commercial, industrial, transportation), perhaps the most striking feature is the fact that total energy used in the industrial sector has been relatively stagnant since the mid-1970s while all other sectors have experienced clear growth in energy usage.

This should not be taken to mean that industrial or manufacturing output has been stagnant.  Just the opposite - the value added to the economy from manufacturing has grown consistently over the past 25 years with the exception of the Great Recession which saw a slowdown in all economic activity.  The chart below is based on data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and shows inflation-adjusted value added of manufacturing from 1987 through 2012.

From this we can infer that manufacturers have found more energy efficient ways to produce an increasingly valuable output.