Electricity is the world’s most important and fastest-growing form of energy. More proof for that assertion came a few days ago when the International Energy Agency released its “Electricity Mid-Year Update.” The Paris-based agency expects global power demand to grow by 4% this year. That’s the fastest growth since 2007.

The new electricity report — along with a new IEA report on coal, a July 24 article by Reuters saying that domestic wind energy production went AWOL last month, and a July 25 report from the Energy Information Administration saying that gas-fired generation in the U.S. hit a new record — shows that the global power sector will be relying on coal and natural gas for decades to come.

Let’s start with power demand. The IEA expects U.S. electricity use to increase by 3% this year. That’s a big jump, given that domestic power demand fell by about 1.6% last year due to milder weather.

The IEA report demonstrates that electricity use goes hand in hand with economic growth. The chart above, which uses a screen grab from the IEA electricity report, shows that electricity fuels economic development, and growing economies use more juice. That can be seen by noting the drops in electricity use after the 2008 financial crisis and the collapse in demand following the 2020 Covid lockdowns.