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The world is currently ahead of the curve to triple renewable capacity by 2030 due to an average annual addition growth of 29% from 2023 to 2025. However, IEA forecasts suggest a potential shortfall, with the main case predicting only 9,530 GW by 2030 due to policy changes in the US and China, primarily driven by deficits in wind and hydro capacity.

The document outlines the climate and community risks associated with the proliferation of AI data centers, noting their high energy and water demands and their tendency to rely on fossil fuels. It provides practical advice for journalists to report on local data center capacity, utility rate increases, and pollution, while citing specific examples of community struggles in the US and AI's varied roles in climate adaptation and forecasting.

In the first half of 2025, China, India, the EU, and the US accounted for 63% of global electricity demand and 64% of CO2 emissions. China and India saw declines in fossil fuel generation as clean energy growth outpaced demand, with China contributing 55% of global solar and 82% of global wind growth. Conversely, the US experienced a rise in emissions as solar and wind growth failed to keep pace with demand, leading to a 17% increase in coal generation. In the EU, strong solar growth was offset by declines in wind and hydro due to poor weather conditions, resulting in a 14% increase in gas generation and a 4.8% rise in power sector emissions.

In the first half of 2025, global solar and wind generation grew sufficiently to meet and exceed total electricity demand growth, leading to renewables overtaking coal in the global electricity mix for the first time. Solar generation saw record absolute growth, while total fossil fuel generation declined slightly. Consequently, global CO2 emissions from the power sector fell marginally by 0.2%, although results varied by region, with emissions decreasing in China and India but increasing in the US and EU.

In the first half of 2025, global solar and wind generation grew sufficiently to exceed total electricity demand growth, leading to renewables overtaking coal's share of the global electricity mix for the first time on record. While China and India saw declines in fossil fuel generation and emissions, the US and EU experienced increases due to demand growth outpacing clean energy in the US and unfavorable weather affecting wind and hydro in the EU.

In August 2025, wind and solar power generated 34% of Brazil's electricity, totaling 19.0 TWh, the highest monthly share on record. This growth has allowed Brazil to maintain low fossil fuel generation (14% in August 2025) despite hydro output hitting a four-year low of 27 TWh due to drought. Between 2014 and 2024, wind and solar generation increased fifteenfold, contributing to a 31% decline in power sector emissions to 79 MtCO2 in 2024. While demand growth has accelerated to 5.3% in 2024, solar capacity additions slowed in the first half of 2025 to 7.1 GW due to grid congestion and regulatory uncertainty.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) reports that utilities in seven PJM states passed over $4.3 billion in data center connection costs to all customers in 2024. This occurs because large data centers (100–1,000 MW) require high-voltage transmission infrastructure, which falls under federal FERC jurisdiction and is typically allocated across all customers, unlike low-voltage distribution connections. UCS finds that in 95% of cases, these costs are not paid by the data center owners. The brief recommends that FERC and state PUCs require utilities to track and assign these specific costs to the customers causing them.

Türkiye's electricity use for space cooling is growing significantly faster than overall electricity demand, reaching 10 TWh in 2024. During peak summer hours and extreme heat events, cooling accounts for a substantial share of total consumption, reflecting the increasing pressure of climate change on the country's energy system.

Türkiye's cooling-related electricity consumption reached 10 TWh in 2024, growing by 26% since 2022. This trend is shifting peak electricity demand from winter to summer, with the gap between summer and winter peaks widening to 9.1 GW by 2025. The report projects that cooling demand could reach 35 TWh by 2035, with peak hourly demand potentially hitting 85 GWh. To address this, the study recommends expanding distributed solar power, which aligns with peak cooling hours, implementing energy storage (including pumped-storage hydro), and improving data collection on air conditioner ownership to enhance demand forecasting.

The briefing challenges the notion that coal plants are necessary for grid reliability amidst a data center boom in the US. It asserts that coal plants are prone to unplanned outages, lack the ramp speed required for voltage-sensitive loads, and create grid congestion. The author suggests that over 95 percent of future demand can be met using scalable clean solutions such as battery storage and demand flexibility.

The report argues that while India's shift to electric vehicles can reduce emissions by 33%-55% compared to internal combustion engines, full decarbonisation depends on increasing the share of clean electricity in the grid. It estimates that meeting the charging needs of the projected 2030 EV stock would require approximately 14 GW of dedicated wind and solar capacity. The analysis highlights significant regional disparities in the cleanliness of EV charging across 10 Indian states, with Karnataka leading in clean energy share and Uttar Pradesh, the largest market by volume, providing only 18.3% of charging electricity from clean resources.

The briefing identifies regulatory uncertainty, slow permitting, and the lack of a cohesive strategy as primary barriers to geothermal energy in California. It proposes establishing a statewide strategic plan, streamlining environmental reviews, updating decades-old well regulations to accommodate next-generation technologies, reforming interconnection and resource adequacy frameworks to reflect year-round value, and increasing funding for high-upfront pre-development costs.

As of Q2 2025, US utility resource plans show a trend of increasing electricity demand projections and a corresponding increase in planned gas power plant capacity, leading to a widening gap between projected emissions and net-zero targets.

In June 2025, solar power became the largest source of electricity in the EU, generating 22.1% of the total supply. This milestone coincided with record-high wind generation for May and June and a record low for coal's share of electricity. However, the first half of 2025 saw an overall increase in fossil fuel generation, driven by higher gas use and lower hydropower output due to drought.

The June–July 2025 heatwave in Europe increased electricity demand by up to 14% and caused average daily power prices to double or triple in several countries. While record solar generation of 45 TWh in June 2025 helped maintain daytime stability, the heatwave triggered thermal power plant outages, particularly affecting France's nuclear fleet. The report argues for the deployment of battery storage, interconnection, and demand flexibility to mitigate future extreme weather risks.

The World Resources Institute states that H.R.1. will hinder U.S. clean energy leadership by phasing out wind and solar tax credits and introducing Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) restrictions. These measures are expected to increase electricity costs, eliminate jobs, and reduce the power system's ability to meet rising demand from AI, manufacturing, and extreme weather.

US utilities face a projected 270 GW power gap due to rising demand from AI and electrification and the retirement of coal plants. While utilities are increasingly relying on gas-fired capacity, major turbine manufacturers (GE Vernova, Siemens Energy, and Mitsubishi Power) report delivery timelines extending to 2028-2030 and record backlogs. This supply crunch, combined with rising procurement costs—exemplified by a $900 million cost increase for Duke Indiana's Cayuga plant—creates reliability risks. The report suggests alternatives such as energy efficiency, virtual power plants, grid-enhancing technologies, and clean repowering to meet near-term load growth.

The report examines the surge in data centre development in Southeast Asia, highlighting how increasing electricity demand—particularly in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines—threatens climate targets due to reliance on fossil-fuel-dominated grids. It argues that without significant investment in solar and wind energy and improved energy efficiency, the digital boom will lead to a substantial rise in greenhouse gas emissions.

ASEAN electricity demand grew by approximately 50% between 2013 and 2023 and is projected to rise by up to 41% by 2030. While the IEA's Announced Pledges Scenario (APS) targets 100,000 km of transmission line expansion for Southeast Asia between 2021 and 2030, the combined plans of Indonesia, Viet Nam, Thailand, and the Philippines total 45,078 km, covering only about 45% of that target. The document argues that grid planning must shift from merely meeting peak demand to managing the intermittency of wind and solar power, which saw cost reductions of 55% and 85% respectively in the decade to 2020.

In 2024, Türkiye's combined wind and solar electricity generation reached 62 TWh, surpassing the historical peak of domestic coal production (53 TWh in 2019). While solar generation grew by 39% to reach a 7.5% share of total production, wind growth slowed, maintaining a 10.7% share. Despite a record high in total coal generation (122 TWh), making Türkiye the highest coal-producing country in Europe, the overall share of fossil fuels fell to 55%, the lowest since 1993, driven by a decrease in natural gas use. However, renewable growth has not kept pace with a 5.5% increase in electricity demand, which was driven by record temperatures in June and July. Türkiye's new 2035 targets aim to quadruple wind and solar capacity to 120 GW, which could potentially reduce the fossil fuel share of electricity production to below 20%.