Karnataka does not have any coal deposits. It gets its coal from outside. The electrical energy for Karnataka was purely hydro, and with the commissioning of Raichur thermal power station, it gets electrical energy from coal also. The other major source of commercial energy - oil - is also not available in Karnataka. Hence, the main source of commercial energy for the state comes from hydroelectric plants.

Karnataka state depends both on commercial and non commercial forms of energy. Non commercial energy constitutes 53.2%, met mainly by sources like firewood, agricultural residues, charcoal and cowdung, while commercial energy's share is 46.8%, met mainly by electricity, oil, coal etc. The data is compiled from various agencies shows that the commercial energy sources like coal, oil, electricity provides only a small part of the energy scene of Karnataka. The major energy share comes from firewood. Electricity represents 55.67% of commercial energy for 1990-91. There has been an increase in the per cent share for electricity in the last ten years. Firewood consumption is around 7.44 million tons of oil equivalent. Agro wastes are also used for energy purposes. Figures 1 and 2 are pictorial presentation of sourcewise consumption. From Figure 2, it is seen that firewood constitutes 43.0%, while electricity is 26.1%, followed by oil (11.6%), agricultural residues (8.7%). This demonstrates that we depend mainly on biomass to meet our energy needs. Figure 3 illustrates the sector wise consumption of commercial energy in Karnataka during 1990-91. This showed that industrial sector, with 51.4% share, formed the major consumer of commercial energy, followed by the transport sector (23.0%), household (11.2%), and agriculture (3.5%). [1,2,3].