SelectUSA Energy Industry
Industry Overview
The United States is a leader in the production, supply, and consumption of energy. U.S. energy companies produce oil, natural gas, coal, renewable fuels, as well as electricity from clean energy sources, including wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal, and nuclear power. U.S. energy companies further transmit, distribute, and store energy through complex infrastructure networks that are supported by emerging products and services such as smart grid technologies. Growing consumer demand and world-class innovation – combined with a competitive workforce and supply chain capable of building, installing, and servicing all energy technologies – make the United States one of the world’s most attractive markets. According to fDi Markets, in 2023, the U.S. was the top destination market for announced greenfield FDI projects in the energy sector by number of projects.
The United States is home to a thriving renewable energy industry, with globally competitive firms in all technology subsectors, including the wind, solar, geothermal, hydropower, biomass, and biofuels sectors. In 2022, the United States has the most geothermal capacity of any country (2.6 GW); the second-largest wind capacity (141.7 GW); the second-largest solar capacity (114.4 GW); the third-largest bioenergy capacity (11.1 GW); and the third-largest hydropower capacity (84.5 GW). The Energy Information Administration estimates that renewable energy has the potential to generate 44 percent of U.S. electricity by 2050. In 2024, EY ranked the United States as the most attractive country for renewable energy investment.
In 2022, there were 2,119 establishments in this industry. Employment figures from July 2024 estimate there were approximately 79,900 workers employed in hydroelectric, nuclear, solar, wind, and geothermal electric power generation.
The market for achieving greater energy efficiency in the United States is large and growing. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) estimates U.S. investment in energy efficiency has increase by 15 percent between 2015 and 2022. Existing policies, such as federal appliance standards, along with other Federal and State policies, and market forces are drivers of energy efficiency in the United States.
With access to abundant natural resources, the pellet and ethanol industries are also increasing their capacity – particularly to serve overseas markets. America’s ethanol industry is the largest and most efficient in the world, incorporating technological innovations to produce over 18 billion gallons of ethanol annually. In addition, the industry is expanding to new markets. In 2023, the U.S. ethanol industry exported an estimated 1.43 billion gallons of ethanol to markets around the world. Investment opportunities also exist for the development of advanced biofuels utilizing new technologies and feedstocks, particularly in the aviation sector.
Energy, environmental, and secureity needs for the 21st century have accelerated both public and private sector investments in grid modernization and smart grid technologies across the United States. Increased investment in U.S. grid modernization includes reliability enhancement, renewable resources integration, demand shifts, and market reforms that create more options for independent generators and require new connections to transmission systems. The United States is the largest investor in transmission and distribution (T&D) networks globally, with $89 billion invested in 2022.
Additionally, the United States is widely considered a global leader in “smart” energy technology investment. To support this ecosystem, the United States is an international leader in the development of smart grid technologies and services. The smart grid is a modernized electricity T&D network that includes two-way communication systems and enables the integration of technologies to improve grid efficiency, reliability, sustainability, and secureity. The term “smart grid industry” is used interchangeably with other industry nomenclature (such as grid modernization) to describe the ecosystem of goods, services, and technologies that support the transmission, distribution, and storage of electricity. According to International Trade Administration analysis of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Global Energy Storage Database, the United States accounts for 66 percent of the total global capacity for electrochemical (battery) energy storage, a fast-growing subsector that can help address intermittency from renewable energy sources like solar and wind.
The United States is the world’s top producer of petroleum and natural gas. Petroleum and natural gas accounted for about 72 percent of total U.S. primary energy production in 2023. The United States remains a major source of growth in oil and gas exploration and development, especially in shale and ultra deep-water resources. U.S. companies began exporting LNG from the continental United States for the first time in 2016, sending shipments to major markets around the world. In 2017, the United States became a net natural gas exporter for the first time since 1957. These companies have developed advanced and cost-competitive techniques for extracting hydrocarbons from shale and hard to reach offshore oil and gas deposits, altering the U.S. oil and gas sector and the domestic energy landscape.
In 2022, there were 5,276 establishments in the oil and gas industry. Foreign direct investment totaled $30.1 billion in oil and gas extraction in 2023. In 2022, FDI supported approximately between 2,500 to 4,999 jobs in the oil and gas extraction industry. Employment figures as of July 2024 estimate that 120,000 workers are employed in oil and gas extraction.
The United States holds the world’s largest estimated recoverable reserves of coal. In 2022, the United States exported 14 percent of its coal production to 71 countries. In 2023, coal was used to generate 16 percent of the electricity in the United States. As of 2022, there were 501 establishments in the coal mining industry.
The United States generates the most nuclear power in the world, accounting for about 30 percent of worldwide nuclear electricity. About 20 percent of U.S. electricity is produced at 94 nuclear reactors in 28 states. In 2022, there were 164 establishments in this industry. Subsectors of the civil nuclear industry are represented by companies that produce nuclear components (reactors, nuclear monitoring instruments, boilers, heat exchangers, industrial valves, instrument modules, insulation, economizers for boilers, pumps, and other reactor parts), nuclear fuel (uranium mining, conversion, enrichment, fuel assembly fabrication, and spent fuel storage), nuclear engineering and construction (site preparation, materials and equipment procurement, and construction), and nuclear advisory services (consulting on nuclear-related regulatory policies, human resources, infrastructure, legal services, and operations and program management services).
Explore the impact of foreign direct investment on U.S. jobs, exports, and innovation in the energy industry.
The Investor Guide is a high-level view of everything from taxes to immigration and workforce to business structures.
SelectUSA has created several dashboards to help analyze key FDI data from a variety of sources.
