E+C October 2024/Web news 4/IEA news World Energy Outlook 2024
The International Energy Agency’s (IEA’s) newly released World Energy Outlook 2024 examines how shifting market trends, evolving geopolitical uncertainties, emerging technologies, advancing clean energy transitions and growing climate change impacts are all transforming what it means to have secure energy systems.
In particular, the new report underscores that today’s geopolitical tensions and fragmentation are creating major risks for energy security, and for global action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Drawing from the comprehensive report the IEA sets out some of the highlights.
Uncertainties and positive possibilities
Based on today’s policy settings, the world is set to enter a new energy market context in the coming years, marked by continued geopolitical hazards but also by relatively abundant supply of multiple fuels and technologies. This includes more ample supply of oil and liquified natural gas (LNG) coming into view during the second half of the 2020s – as well as excess manufacturing capacity for some key clean energy technologies, notably solar PV and batteries. This is likely to put downward pressure on energy prices, depending on how geopolitical tensions evolve.
Continued increasing electricity use
The contours of a new, more electrified energy system are coming into focus as global electricity demand soars. The new report shows that electricity use has grown at twice the pace of overall energy demand over the last decade. Two-thirds of the electricity demand increase over this period has come from China. And it is set to accelerate further in the years ahead – and rising even more quickly in scenarios that meet national and global goals for achieving net zero emissions.
Based on today’s policy settings and market trends, solar PV and wind are set to become the two single largest sources of electricity before 2035, complementing other clean sources like hydro and nuclear.
Investment in grids and storage
For clean energy to continue growing at pace, greater investment in new energy systems, especially in electricity grids and energy storage, is needed. The report shows that today, for every dollar spent on renewable power, only 60 cents are spent on grids and storage. Secure decarbonisation of the power sector requires investment in grids and storage to increase more quickly than clean electricity generation, and the investment ratio to rebalance to 1:1. Many power systems are currently vulnerable to an increase in extreme weather events, putting a premium on efforts to bolster their resilience.
To reach net zero goals
Despite growing momentum behind clean energy transitions, the world is still a long way from a trajectory aligned with its net zero goals. This year’s World Energy Outlook includes sensitivity analysis for the speed at which renewables and electric mobility might grow, how fast demand for LNG might rise, and how heatwaves, efficiency policies and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) might affect electricity demand going forward.
Clean energy for developing economies
In some regions of the world, high financing costs and project risks are restricting cost-competitive clean energy technologies from reaching countries where they are needed most. This is especially the case in developing economies where these technologies can deliver the biggest returns for sustainable development and emissions reductions. At the same time, lack of access to energy remains the fundamental inequity in today’s energy system. There are 750 million people – mostly in sub-Saharan Africa – without access to electricity and over 2 billion without clean cooking fuels.
To read the full report visit: www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-outlook-2024
Caption: KAREN, on the graph, please crop out the top three lines of bigger bold text.
The World Energy Outlook 2024 shows that under today’s policy settings, solar PV and wind surpass coal as the largest sources of electricity before 2035.