Our Energy Future Series, Part 2: The Future of Power by the LO3 Energy Team Cities use massive amounts of energy. Photo by Bert Heydel. In the first article of this series, we explored how our desire for a Carbon Neutral future has shifted the existing energy mix toward renewables. In this article, we look at how global demand for energy is growing and why the future solution — at least in part — is electric power. Energy demand is driven by three fundamental elements — population, economic growth and efficiency. And the residents of planet Earth are demanding a lot. Our numbers are increasing year-on-year and more and more of us are now living in ever-expanding urban areas around the world. We are also demanding more from our society, with more affluent lifestyles (even, in relative terms, in the developing world) growing a desire for commercialization and technology enabling that to grow through digitization.
There are now 7.6bn people on the planet. That’s up by 3bn since 1980. And it’s still growing. By 2050 , the total number is expected to be around 10bn. Birth rates across the world are actually decreasing, in some nations by so much that their net population is now dropping. But in Africa, with an average 4.7 births per woman, the population is expected to double by 2050. By then, Nigeria will overtake the USA to become the world’s third most populous country behind India, which will have overtaken current table-topper China. Add to that the fact that people are living longer — with the average global life expectancy rising by four years since 2000 and projected to rise another six before 2050, and that’s a lot of people on our planet. Interestingly, is that data shows growth has actually slowed from a […]