China provided for more than half of this growth (550 TW*h), and OECD countries – for 25% (230 TW*h) including the developed economies of Europe, North America and East Asia. As for the consuming industries, residential and commercial buildings using air conditioning accounted for more than 60% of global growth in demand for electricity. Industry and transport accounted for the remaining 40%, mainly due to introducing heat pumps and e-vehicles.
According to IEA, 108 GW of heat pumps capacity were commissioned across the world in 2024 – almost the same as in 2023 (112 GW) and in 2022 (109 GW). E-vehicles and hybrid vehicles sales in the end of the last year grew by more than 25% (up to 17 mln vehicles); the share of e-vehicles in global sales of all types of cars reached 20%. We can use the example of the USA to assess the electrification effects on the final demand dynamics; in 2024, the consumption of electricity by e-vehicles there reached 11.1 TW*h exceeding the level of 2021 more than three times (as per Energy Information Administration, EIA).
Low-carbon energy sources provided for over 80% of this growth in demand, including by the effect of commissioning new capacities and re-launching the “old” ones. For example, a number of reactors in Japan and France were re-started, parallel to far-reaching commissioning of RES capacities: according to IEA, global commissioning of solar panels accelerated from 426 GW in 2023 up to 553 GW in 2024, and of power plants – from 116 GW up to 119 GW respectively. However, combined heat and power plants still play the dominating role is supplying electricity: in 2024, the global share of coal-fired generation was 35%, and gas-fired generation – 20%, while as all other sources cumulatively accounted for 45% of electricity generation.
