It’s Electricity Realism, Not Climate Denialism
Electrifying everything comes with plenty of risks of its own.
The electrification of everything is the biggest shake up the global energy system has seen in decades. Unfortunately, the route to the future is hung up by the culture wars of the energy transition and the fight against climate change. That’s putting pressure on the advocates of electric vehicles, heat pumps and wind turbines to address the risks their vision carries.
Confronting them is increasingly important as power consumption booms. Since 2010, global electricity demand has grown almost twice as fast as total energy use. The trend is likely to continue, in part because of electron-hungry new technologies, like data centers and artificial intelligence, and in part simply because the world is getting richer.