(introduction...)

Energy resources are broadly categorised as (a) renewable and (b) depletables. The depletable resources are stored one whose availability keep on decreasing depending on their use. While, renewable sources are available every year and hence defined as a flow of energy that is not exhausted by being used. Examples of renewable are hydro-energy, solar, wind, geo-thermal, wave, tidal, biomass, energy from wastes (biogas, agrowastes, industrial wastes etc). Example of non renewable are petroleum products, coal, uranium etc. If the annual consumption of fuelwood is less than its annual production then fuelwood can also be treated renewable source of energy. Energy resources are also classified as primary or secondary ones - coal, firewood etc are being primary while electricity a secondary one. Whenever there is transformation of energy from one form to another only a part of energy input gets converted to usable output. To highlight the increased use of depletable resources of energy with increased population without much conservation efforts energy consumption patterns for Karnataka in south India are studied over a period of time (Ramachandra 1994, Government of Karnataka 1990). These studies reveals that how vast scope exists for introduction of conservation measures and as well as introduction of renewable sources to sustain if not speed up the overall development of the state.