The world’s electricity demand rose by 3% in 2025, with growth nearly triple compared to the 1.3% increase in total energy consumption, as data centers and electric vehicles continued to push power use higher, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Monday.
Overall global energy demand growth slowed to 1.3% in 2025, slightly below the previous decade’s average of 1.4% and significantly lower than in 2024, as global economic growth slowed and cooling demand in Asia was lower than in 2024, the IEA found in its annual Global Energy Review report published today.
While total energy demand growth cooled, electricity demand continued to grow strongly, with an annual rise of 3% last year. The growth rate eased from 4.4% in 2024, when intense heat waves in India and Southeast Asia had boosted electricity consumption.
Still, the 2025 growth rate in electricity demand remained above the 2.8% annual average between 2014 and 2024 and was also well over twice the 1.3% rate of overall global energy demand growth in 2025.
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Electricity demand in the United States grew by 2% last year, slower than the 2.8% growth seen in 2024 but more than three times as fast as the average growth rate over the previous decade, the IEA said.
The buildings sector accounted for 80% of U.S. power demand growth in 2025, boosted in particular by rapidly-increasing data center loads. Data center power demand alone contributed around half of the entire increase in electricity consumption in the U.S. last year. A cold winter, with a nearly 10% increase in heating degree days, also supported power demand in 2025 by boosting space heating needs, according to the Paris-based agency.
Solar power met the most of the energy demand growth globally last year, followed by gas, the IEA said.
“Electricity consumption is growing much faster than overall energy demand – and one energy source is growing much faster than any other,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol.
“Solar PV accounted for over a quarter of all of the world’s energy demand growth – more than any other source, for the first time – followed right after by natural gas.”
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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