About this event
This webinar will take you through our model for the big two temperature related adjustments that utilities have to plan for – increasing air conditioning as the world warms, and switching heat from the fuels it uses today onto electricity. In some countries this will add a further 17% to total electricity requirements – on top of increases due to GDP growth.
This is a realistic “air con – home heat” report, not focused on the hottest parts of the world, but focused on the necessary transformation in modern societies. This is electricity that just HAS to be found.
We talk about the conclusions of the report from Rethink Energy, entitled “Warming and Cooling - double whammy for the grid” where we put hard numbers on cooling spend and electricity home heat, showing a growth of some 1,500 TWh in power increases across the top electricity using societies.
These are twin problems that must be solved in the same time frame – shifting home heating from the wood, coal and gas fossil fuels which they rely on today to renewables, at the same time as we accommodate soaring temperatures which immobilize workforces in the struggle for national competitiveness.
We confined our report to the top 21 countries in terms of electricity output, and discover that countries like the UK, Italy, South Korea and Japan are to be the hardest hit. The report ““Warming and Cooling - double whammy for the grid.” These countries represent about 84% of global electricity today.
The world’s electricity supply is already headed towards 43,000 TWh per annum by 2050 keeping up with economic growth. When you add in electric supply for EVs and the mass decarbonization of industry this jumps to 50,000 TWh. When you add in the heat problem some countries will have to find a further 15% to decarbonize heating and keep up with air conditioning.
Consumers in Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania, are not the problem here and if that’s your focus this is not the webinar for you – those countries have a severe heating problem as the world changes, but they do not have a voting public and a stable grid, and an industrialized society that makes air conditioning possible everywhere.
In each country we assess, the problem and therefore the solution are different.
As the planet warms, more and more countries shift from the heating transition into one where cooling becomes more important.
This webinar will identify which countries have the biggest problems.
