Agencies
NEW DELHI, July 19: With demand for electricity in India expected to surge by a massive eight per cent this year, the world's demand is rising at its fastest rate in years, driven by robust economic growth, intense heat waves and increasing uptake of technologies that run on electricity such as EVs and heat pumps, a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday.
At the same time, renewables continue their rapid ascent, with solar PV on course to set new records.
Global electricity demand is forecast to grow by around four per cent in 2024, up from 2.5 per cent in 2023, the IEA's Electricity Mid-Year Update finds.
This would represent the highest annual growth rate since 2007, excluding the exceptional rebounds seen in the wake of the global financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic.
The strong increase in global electricity consumption is set to continue into 2025, with growth around four per cent again, according to the report. Renewable sources of electricity are also set to expand rapidly this year and next, with their share of global electricity supply forecast to rise from 30 per cent in 2023 to 35 per cent in 2025.
The amount of electricity generated by renewables worldwide in 2025 is forecast to eclipse the amount generated by coal for the first time. Solar PV alone is expected to meet roughly half of the growth in global electricity demand over 2024 and 2025 -- with solar and wind combined meeting as much as three-quarters of the growth.
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