Energy use in agricultural facilities is only one sector of the total energy used in the agriculture industry. The challenge is to correctly determine energy consumption for these facilities. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides many reports of energy used in agriculture, however reporting is always provided in monetary values. Using these values, actual energy use can be approximated for different sectors of agriculture and different energy sources. Overall, fertilizer production and diesel fuel are the dominant energy inputs on farms. Electricity use is a major player as well, and the predominant energy form used in agricultural facilities.

The predominant energy forms used in livestock facility systems include electricity and liquid propane (LP gas). Using the approximated energy use from USDA data and other sources, electricity and LP gas use will be partitioned into different use categories for swine, dairy and poultry facility systems. LP gas typically is used for space heating and water heating. Electricity is typically used for ventilation, air circulation, lighting, equipment motors and on-farm refrigeration. With an understanding of the partitioned energy use within a given livestock sector, the implementation of energy efficiency practices and standards can be evaluated.

Energy used for growing plants indoors ranges from very small to very large, facility type, and crop. Indoor crop production is inherently more energy use intensive than outdoor cultivation due to the use of systems to control the growing environment. Systems used in vertical farms, plant factories, and cannabis facilities are much more energy intensive, requiring supplemental lighting for 12 or more hours, large air conditioning units to remove both sensible and latent heat, and large fans to achieve high air exchange rates. Understanding energy use in indoor plant production will allow the identification and implementation of energy efficiency measures.