Global electricity demand set for ‘strong rise’ – plus other top energy stories

Global electricity demand is expected to rise sharply in 2024 and 2025, says a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Demand is forecast to grow by around 4%, up from 2.5% in 2023 – the highest annual growth rate in the past two decades, excluding the rebounds seen after the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. The growth is driven by factors including strong economic activity, increased use of air conditioning amid intense heatwaves, and increasing uptake of technologies like electric vehicles and heat pumps.

Renewable electricity sources are expected to expand rapidly, with their share of global supply forecast to rise from 30% in 2023 to 35% in 2025. Solar PV alone is expected to meet about half of the growth in demand.

However, despite this rise in renewables, coal power generation is unlikely to decline this year due to high demand, the IEA says. This will result in a slight increase in power sector emissions in 2024 before a decline in 2025.

“It’s encouraging to see clean energy’s share of the electricity mix continuing to rise, but this needs to happen at a much faster rate to meet international energy and climate goals,” Keisuke Sadamori, IEA Director of Energy Markets and Security, said in a release accompanying the report. A reliable and secure electricity supply and measures to implement higher energy efficiency will be crucial, he added.

Wind and solar power have reached a share of 30% of European Union (EU) electricity generation, overtaking fossil fuels for the first time, a new report says.

Fossil fuel generation in the first half of 2024 fell to a new low of 17%, despite a rebound in demand after two years of decline.

As a result, the EU’s emissions in the first half of the year are now nearly a third lower than in the first half of 2022, the study from clean energy think tank Ember adds.

A greener economy could generate more than 3 million jobs across Africa by 2030, with 70% of the projected jobs in the renewable energy sector, a new report says.

China's daily crude oil imports in July fell to their lowest since September 2022, Reuters reports. It comes amid weaker fuel demand in the country.

Qatar has invested in a US-backed initiative to scale up the production of minerals critical to the energy transition.

Data centres in Ireland consumed more electricity last year than all of the country’s urban homes combined, according to government statistics.

The UK may need to build new gas-fired power stations to decarbonize its grid by 2030, The Guardian reports. A new study says this new capacity, needed to provide a required rise in baseload electricity, should be made “low-carbon ready”.

Oil and gas facilities in the US could be emitting four times the amount of methane gas than regulators estimate, a new study suggests.

Chemicals companies are collaborating to help the industry become more sustainable. Find out how in this episode of our Radio Davos podcast.

Seven out of ten people want their country to move to clean energy as soon as possible – but only a fraction of the trillions invested in the switch from fossil fuels is going to emerging economies. This article explores how we can make the energy transition more equitable.

While artificial intelligence could help facilitate the energy transition, emissions from the data centres needed to power new tools are rising. This article explains more and looks at what’s needed to achieve the right balance.