Electricity 2025: Analysis and Forecast to 2027

Strong growth in electricity demand is raising the curtain on a new Age of Electricity, with consumption set to soar through 2027. Electrification of buildings, transportation and industry combined with a growing demand for air conditioners and data centres is ushering a shift toward a global economy with electricity at its foundations.

The International Energy Agency’s Electricity 2025 provides a deep and comprehensive analysis of all these trends as well as recent policy developments. For the period 2025 through 2027, it forecasts electricity demand, supply and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for select countries, by region and worldwide. The report explores …

Optimal Demand Response in Virtual Power Plant Using Local/Global Service Providers in Interaction with Energy Storage Systems

Recently, there has been a substantial increase in the adoption of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) within power systems. Additionally, traditional fossil-fuel automobiles are progressively being substituted by electric vehicles. As the incorporation of RES in supplying aspects and Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs) on the load side rises, a heightened variability emerges in the power system’s operations. This research introduces an innovative framework for Virtual Storage Plants (VSP) designed to amalgamate the repository capabilities of PEVs into energy grids. The proposed VSP consists of intelligent points for recharging a Parking Lot Aggregator (PLA), a Local Service Provider (LSP), and a Global …

Carbon Dioxide Removal: Policy Recommendations for a European Strategy

It is now widely recognised that carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere is needed to reach climate objectives alongside deep emissions reduction. Precisely how much carbon dioxide removals will be needed, which type, and where it will be deployed, depends on several factors, including the peak temperature reached and how quickly, and with how many residual emissions.

The current regulating framework is not sufficient to deliver an effective carbon dioxide Removal (CDR) strategy in Europe. There is a lack of clear measures that are needed to define the development and deployment of CDR in Europe, including appropriate targets, safeguarding principles, …

Disrupted Place Attachments and Emotional Energy Geography in Fracked Appalachia

To date, there has been limited analysis at the intersection of extractive industry and emotional geography. This research addresses this intersection by investigating how gas extraction, production, and distribution have disrupted residents’ place attachment, and how this disruption is emotionally embodied. This research relies on 24 interviews and 2 workshops conducted in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia in the summer of 2021. This tristate region, sitting on the Marcellus shale, has witnessed a significant industrial buildout in the form of pipelines and hydraulic fracturing in the last fifteen years. This buildout is compounded by social vulnerability and environmental degradation resulting …

Modernizing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission REV.2

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been considered the world’s premier nuclear regulatory body. In order to maintain this position of leadership, significant modernization must take place. By modernizing, the public could have increased confidence in nuclear energy, which is projected to become a much larger factor in people’s lives. US nuclear designs that achieve NRC licenses could be more attractive in the international market for safe, clean, and reliable energy.

A modern NRC recognizes that nuclear energy is a very benign technology; far more so than perceived today. Not only are nuclear accidents rare, they are weak: too weak …

Rethinking Load Growth: Assessing the Potential for Integration of Large Flexible Loads in US Power Systems

A key solution to the United States’ soaring electrical demand—driven by unprecedented electricity needs from data centers and their booming artificial intelligence workloads, alongside other consumers—is load flexibility. Flexibility allows large electricity users to temporarily reduce consumption during periods of grid stress by shifting workloads, utilizing on-site generation, or adjusting operations. By leveraging flexibility, new large loads can be interconnected more quickly while reducing the need for premature investment in additional power plants and transmission lines—offering a hedge against uncertainty in future electricity demand in light of the release of DeepSeek.

This first-of-its-kind, national-scale analysis provides a first-order estimate of …

50 States of Virtual Power Plants & Supporting Distributed Energy Resources

The North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center (NCCETC), in partnership with the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA), is pleased to present the 50 States of Virtual Power Plant and Supporting Distributed Energy Resources: 2024 State Policy Snapshot. This first-of-its-kind report provides an overview and insights on state regulatory and legislative actions related to virtual power plants (VPPs) and distributed energy resource (DER) aggregations. This report is meant to help the collective audience understand the breadth and scope of policy actions related to VPPs and DER aggregations in the United States.

By focusing on state-level actions, the intent is to develop …

Radiological Protection During Armed Conflict: Improving Regulatory and Operational Resilience

The conflict in Ukraine has highlighted pressing concerns regarding radiological protection and the need to enhance both operational and regulatory resilience during times of armed conflict. While the core principles of radiological protection remain sound, it is crucial for all nations to strengthen their plans and procedures to better manage emerging threats and increased uncertainty.

In response to these complex challenges, the NEA Committee on Radiological Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) and the Norwegian Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (DSA) co-hosted a workshop in Oslo from 22 to 24 November 2023. The workshop, titled “Radiological Protection During Armed Conflict”, gathered …

Achieving Zero-Carbon Buildings: Electric, Efficient and Flexible

In this report, Achieving Zero-Carbon Buildings: Electric, Efficient and Flexible, the ETC draws a complete picture of the buildings sector’s emissions and energy use and describes how a combination of electric, efficient, and flexible solutions can decarbonise buildings, improve standards of living, and reduce energy bills if supported by ambitious policy.

The global buildings sector currently contributes a third of greenhouse gas emissions (12.3 GtCO2 in 2022). This comes from the use of fossil fuels for heating, cooling, cooking, lighting and powering appliances, as well as the construction of residential and commercial buildings.

There is not a one-size-fits-all solution for …

Demystifying the Voluntary Carbon Market

Companies often seek to “offset” their greenhouse gas emissions to meet their climate mitigation goals by voluntarily purchasing carbon credits from other entities. Ideally, a buyer’s purchase of carbon credits ensures that another entity has generated, or will generate, emissions reductions or removals that the buyer can claim to counteract its own emissions. While the voluntary carbon market has received significant attention in recent years, discussions of the market tend to reveal inconsistency, ambiguity, and confusion. In part because there is no unified market platform or clearinghouse for information, many observers must cobble together, reconcile, and integrate information from disparate …