energy
Climate systems and AI drive energy requirements – more nuclear power
The worldwide electricity requirement increases significantly, also because of electric cars and data centers. It is served by a lot of gas and a comeback of nuclear power – but not only.
Climate systems, artificial intelligence and other power guzzlers led the global energy requirement to rise above average last year. The extra needs are mainly absorbed by solar energy and nuclear power, as the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris announced. But fossil fuels are also required, especially gas. The most important points at a glance:
Climate systems as a “climate killer”?
The energy requirement increased primarily because of the demand for electricity, which increased by 4.3 percent compared to the previous year. The increase is almost twice as high as on average of the past ten years.
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.
Flow and developing countries made up more than four fifths of the absolute energy growth. A lot of electricity also flowed in systems for artificial intelligence, data center and in increasingly electrically powered means of transport, as the IEA announced.
Nuclear energy asked again – not only in Asia
From Claudia Kemfert’s point of view, energy economist at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), the nations must do everything possible to pay attention to efficiency when using air conditioning and AI. “The costs of renewable energies are falling, so that the additional electricity requirements can only be covered by cheaper renewable energy-energy stream,” she said. Germany must also rely on their expansion. Nuclear power is expensive and risky and therefore not an alternative.
However, nuclear power is experiencing a kind of renaissance worldwide: six new Meilers have been 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. Germany got out of nuclear energy.
Need for coal and oil increases – but slower
The need for coal continues to grow, but he 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.
Records for renewable and gas
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.
As well as the renewables, the demand for natural gas 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.
dpa
Source: Stern
