A Look At The EIA's Annual Energy Outlook for 2017 With Projections To 2050

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is the statistical and analytical agency within the U.S. Department of Energy. EIA collects, analyzes, and disseminates independent and impartial energy information to promote sound policy-making, efficient markets, and public understanding of energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment. EIA is the nation's premier source of energy information and, by law, its data, analyses, and forecasts are independent of approval by any other officer or employee of the U.S. government.

EIA conducts a comprehensive data collection program that covers the full spectrum of energy sources, end uses, and energy flows. EIA also prepares informative energy analyses, monthly short-term forecasts of energy market trends, and long-term U.S. and international energy outlooks. On Thursday January 5th, 2017 the EIA released their Annual Energy Outlook for 2017 with projections to 2050. The Annual Energy Outlook(AEO) for 2017 are modeled projections of what may happen given certain assumptions and methodologies. The Annual Energy Outlook(AEO) is developed using the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS), an integrated model that aims to capture various interactions of economic changes and energy supply, demand and prices. Energy market projections are subject to much uncertainty, as many of the events that shape energy markets and future developments in technologies, demographics, and resources cannot be foreseen with uncertainty. Energy consumption varies minimally across all AEO cases. In all AEO cases, the electric power sector remains the largest consumer of primary energy. Projections of total energy consumption (and supply) are sensitive to the conversions used to represent the primary energy content of noncombustible energy resources. AEO2017 uses fossil-equivalence to represent the energy content of renewable fuels. To get more in depth information on the EIA's Annual Energy Outlook for 2017 with projections to 2050 click on the picture below to read the entire report from the EIA.