The global energy requirement has increased significantly last year. Extreme heat in India and China mainly increased electricity consumption because many air conditioning systems were in use.
Climate systems, artificial intelligence and other power guzzlers have increased the world’s energy hunger above average last year. This emerges from the global energy report of the International Energy Agency (IEA). According to this, the energy requirement increased by 2.2 percent and thus faster than on average in the past ten years.
The demand for electricity increased particularly significantly: last year the electricity requirement was 4.3 percent higher than in the previous year. As a main reason for the 1,100 terawatt hours higher demand, the experts make up the use of air conditioning systems, especially because of extreme heat in India and China. More and more people are affordable devices, and that in an increasingly hotter world climate.
2024 was the warmest year since the beginning of the records that exceeded the previous record from 2023. The global cooling days, which are a measure of cooling, were six percent higher than in 2023 and 20 percent higher than in the long -term average between 2000 and 2020. Regions were particularly affected with high cooling requirements, including China and the USA.
New record for renewable energies
However, according to the researchers, the increase in the event of electricity intensive production and an increasing electricity requirement due to digitization in connection with AI and an increasing number of data centers are also for the increase in electricity requirements. A total of three fifths of the entire increase in the global energy requirement accounted for the electricity sector.
In the entire energy system, all fuels and technologies recorded growth in 2024, albeit at a different pace. No other energy source built as much performance as renewable energies, more than a third of the growth went to their account. Solar energy is far ahead, but also wind and hydropower. The race is made again by China: the majority of the installed renewable performance went online here last year.
The performance also grew considerably in the EU and the USA. “The strong expansion of solar energy, wind power, nuclear power and electric vehicles dodges the link between economic growth and emissions,” said executive director Fatih Birol.
Nuclear energy asked again
At the same time, however, the demand for natural gas also achieved a record value. Firstly, because it is used in many countries instead of oil for power. On the other hand, because demand in industry is recovering, also in the European Union. According to the IEA, the need for liquid gas (LNG), which is also in demand in Germany.
The nuclear power experienced a kind of renaissance: six new Meilers were completed, two in China alone. The newly installed performance was one third higher than in the previous year. With the United States, Great Britain and France, three G7 countries also expanded their capacities.
Need for cabbage and oil rises – but slower
The need for coal continues to grow, but the growth was weakened as in previous years. Coal is mainly used for power. According to the IEA, the mini growth of 1.1 percent goes fully to the account of the heat waves in Asia, which raised the need for room cooling.
A little weaker was the growth for oil, also because of the trend towards the electric car. In China, the main driver of oil demand for a long time, the demand for oil -based fuels in 2024 even decreased.
