Daily Management Review

IEA: global energy demand rose by 2.3% in 2018


03/27/2019


Global energy demand rose 2.3% last year. This is the fastest pace this decade, the International Energy Agency said.



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pixabay
Natural gas showed the greatest growth and provided 45% of the growth in energy consumption.

Demand for all fuels rose last year. Solar and wind generation grew at double-digit rates, and the production of solar energy alone increased by 31%.

Nevertheless, it was not enough to meet the growing demand for electricity throughout the world, which also stimulated coal consumption. As a result, global energy-related CO2 emissions increased by 1.7% to 33 gigatons in 2018.

World demand for electricity increased by 4% to more than 23 thousand TWh in the last year. This rapid growth is pushing electricity to a 20% share of total final energy consumption.

Renewable energy is an important factor in expanding production of electricity. China remains the leader in renewable energy, followed by Europe and the United States.

Together, China, the United States and India accounted for almost 70% of the growth in global energy demand. In the US, there was the largest increase in demand for oil and gas. Gas consumption in the country jumped 10% from the previous year, and this is the maximum increase since the beginning of the IEA data collection in 1971.

Global gas demand has grown at the fastest pace since 2010. Annual growth was 4.6%, helped by the replacement of coal with gas. Gas demand in China has rose by almost 18%.

Global oil demand increased by 1.3%, and for the first time in 20 years, the United States again became the growth leaders due to a significant expansion in the petrochemical industry, an increase in industrial production and freight traffic.

Global coal consumption grew by 0.7%, with growth only in Asia, especially in China, India and several countries in South and Southeast Asia.

In nuclear power, an increase of 3.3% was observed last year. World generation has reached the level observed before the accident at the Japanese nuclear power plant "Fukushima-1." This is mainly due to new capacities in China and the restarting of four reactors in Japan. Around the world, nuclear power plants met 9% growth in electricity demand.

source: reuters.com