01 / GLOBAL SUPPLY
What makes the world’s electricity?
Coal is still the largest single source. Clean generation crossed 40% in 2024 because solar, wind, hydro, and nuclear together grew much faster than fossil generation.
ONE YEAR OF WORLD GENERATION
Every 100 units, by source
Coal 34.1%
Gas 22.3%
Hydro 14.3%
Nuclear 9.0%
Wind 8.1%
Solar 6.9%
Other 5.3%
The fastest-growing major source; output has doubled in three years.
Now larger than solar, but expanding at a slower percentage rate.
The largest clean source; 2024 included a rebound from 2023 droughts.
Record output, but demand grew quickly enough that its share stayed nearly flat.
Still number one in 2024; the IEA now forecasts a slight global decline to 2030.
Flexible and dispatchable; forecast to keep growing, especially in the U.S. and Middle East.
Biomass, geothermal, and other renewable generation.
Mostly oil and smaller fossil sources; shrinking at the global level.
02 / GLOBAL DEMAND
Where does the electricity go?
Industry is the largest final user. Buildings—homes plus commercial and public services—are larger still when combined. Transport is small today, but growing fastest from a low base.
FINAL ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION
24,398 TWh by end-use sector
≈2.78 TW of average final load
Industry42.2%motors, heat, metals, chemicals, manufacturing
Residential26.8%cooling, appliances, lighting, water and space heat
Commercial + public21.1%offices, shops, schools, hospitals—and data centres
Agriculture + forestry3.1%irrigation, pumping, processing
Transport1.8%rail and electric road vehicles
Other5.0%fishing, unallocated, and miscellaneous uses
DATA CENTRES · SHOWN INSIDE COMMERCIAL + PUBLIC
415 TWh ≈47.4 GW always on
≈1.5% of world electricity in 2024
This is a visible breakout, not an extra slice: data centres are already embedded mostly in the commercial/public-services category. The end-use chart is 2022; the breakout uses the newer 2024 IEA estimate.
03 / THREE LARGE SYSTEMS
China is biggest. America is most intensive. Europe is cleanest.
These three systems account for more than half of world electricity. The comparison below uses the same visual order and clearly labels the national accounting differences.
UNITED STATES · 2024
4,391 TWh ≈501 GW always on generation 14.2% of world generationCHINA · 2024
10,087 TWh ≈1.15 TW always on generation 32.6% of world generationEUROPEAN UNION · 2024
2,773 TWh ≈317 GW always on generation 9.0% of world generationUS
THE GAS-LED GRID
Wind + solar finally passed coal.
Solar +27.1%Wind +7.3%Gas +3.5%Nuclear +0.9%Hydro −0.8%Coal −3.4%
FINAL USE BY CUSTOMER CLASS · 2024
Industry1,035 TWh118 GW+2.5%
Services + commerce1,451 TWh166 GW+3.0%
Residential1,483 TWh169 GW+2.3%
Transport*7 TWh0.8 GW+1.7%
Why was industry called “retail”? EIA uses “retail sales” to mean all electricity sold to ultimate customers—including factories, not just shops. This panel now uses plain language. *The transport class mostly covers rail/transit; road-EV charging often appears under homes or commercial sites.
CN
THE COAL-HEAVY BUILDOUT
Clean supply grew almost five times faster than fossil.
Solar +43.6%Wind +12.5%Hydro +10.5%Gas +7.7%Nuclear +3.7%Coal +1.3%
FINAL USE BY ECONOMIC SECTOR · 2024
Industry6,387 TWh729 GW+5.1%
Services1,835 TWh210 GW+9.9%
Residential1,494 TWh171 GW+10.6%
Primary sector136 TWh15.5 GW+6.3%
China’s “secondary industry” is shown as industry and includes manufacturing, mining, construction, and utilities. “Services” is the tertiary sector; transport is included there, so no separate China transport line is available in this release.
EU
THE LOW-CARBON BLEND
Wind + solar passed gas and coal combined.
Solar +21.0%Hydro +11.9%Nuclear +4.8%Wind +2.7%Gas −5.2%Coal −14.7%
FINAL ELECTRICITY BY SECTOR · 2023
Industry815 TWh93 GW—
Services703 TWh80 GW—
Residential691 TWh79 GW—
Transport70 TWh8.0 GW—
Agriculture46 TWh5.3 GW—
Eurostat’s common EU ledger is one year older and totals final end-use electricity, so it is lower than generation after grid losses and power-sector own-use. Rows are ordered to match the U.S. and China panels.
The transition is not one sentence.
U.S. coal is in long decline, but gas is forecast to grow with load. China is building clean supply fastest while coal remains its foundation. EU renewables are forecast to supply all demand growth through 2030, displacing fossil generation; nuclear output is broadly stable in the U.S. and EU but rising quickly in China.
04 / THE NEW LOADS
Servers and cars are joining the grid.
Data centres are concentrated, always-on loads. EVs use less electricity today but are far more numerous—and can shift charging away from the grid’s busiest hours.
WORLD DATA CENTRES · 2024
415 TWh≈47.4 GW always on1.5% of global electricity · growing ≈12% a year since 2017WORLD EV FLEET · 2024
180 TWh≈20.5 GW always on0.7% of final electricity · up ≈60% in one yearDIRECTORY COUNT · 2023
How many data centres?
United States5,375directory-listed facilities
China448directory-listed facilities
Count with care: one “facility” may be a building, campus, or listing. Coverage and disclosure differ by country. Electricity use and installed computing capacity are the more meaningful comparisons.
US data-centre electricity≈187 TWh≈21.3 GW always on45% of world total · ≈4.2% of US demand
China data-centre electricity≈104 TWh≈11.9 GW always on25% of world total · ≈1.0% of China demand
VEHICLES ON THE ROAD · 2024
How many EVs?
United States≈6.3mplug-in light-duty fleet estimate
China31.4mregistered new-energy vehicles
US: 1.6m electric cars sold in 2024, +10% year over year.
China: NEV stock added 10.99m, +54%; electric-car sales grew almost 40%.
US EV electricity≈24 TWh≈2.7 GW always on0.6% of final use
China EV electricity≈118 TWh≈13.5 GW always on1.2% of final use
ONE DELIBERATE INTERACTION
Move from the 2024 baseline to the 2030 outlook
2024: data centres already use far more U.S. electricity than EVs; in China, the two loads are similar in scale.
US data centres by 2030 · IEA≈427 TWh · 48.7 GW
China data centres by 2030 · IEA≈279 TWh · 31.8 GW
US EVs by 2030≈99 TWh · 11.3 GW
China EVs by 2030≈450 TWh · 51.4 GW
HISTORY + PLANNING VIEW · UPDATED 28 AUGUST 2026
From server rooms to a grid-scale load: 1990 → 2030
The y-axis converts annual electricity into the GW that would run continuously. Solid lines connect published historical estimates; dotted lines begin after the 2024 IEA anchor and stop at 2030. The empty 1990s are intentional: computers existed, but no harmonized data-centre electricity series covers that decade. Google’s line is companywide data-centre + office electricity—not disclosed chip “compute GW.”
1990–99No comparable seriesThe category was not yet measured consistently.
2000World 8.1 GW70.8 TWh · US 3.2 GW / 28.2 TWh
2010 → 2018World 22.1 → 23.4 GW194 → 205 TWh as efficiency offset compute growth.
2023US 20.1 GW176 TWh · up from 58 TWh / 6.6 GW in 2014.
2024World 47.4 GW415 TWh · US 21.3 · China 11.9
2030 forecastWorld 107.9 GW945 TWh · US 48.7 · China 31.8 · Google scenario 13.0
The U.S. range is unusually wide.
IEA’s central 2030 allocation is ≈427 TWh (48.7 GW average). Berkeley Lab’s June 2026 bottom-up hardware model is much higher: 521–843 TWh, or 59–96 GW average, with a 649 TWh / 74.1 GW reference case. The chart uses the IEA central path so country lines remain compatible with the IEA world total; the band is the honest uncertainty.
How the lines are drawn: 2000/2005 come from Koomey’s peer-reviewed world and U.S. estimates; the recalibrated 2010/2018 world points come from Masanet et al.; U.S. 2014/2023 come from Berkeley Lab; and 2024 is the IEA anchor. Definitions and methods changed, so the historical line is a milestone guide—not a perfectly harmonized time series. World, U.S., and China 2026–2028 interpolate toward IEA’s 2030 outlook. Google starts with its measured 2021–2025 company electricity and then uses a transparent tapered-growth scenario through 2030.
CURRENT VS. UNDER DEVELOPMENT
Big Tech’s data-centre power footprint
Parent-company labels cover the full data-centre operator—not only the public-cloud product. Solid bars are estimated energized North American capacity; dotted bars are reported global capacity under development. They sit together for comparison but must not be added, because geography and reporting scope differ.
Amazon (incl. AWS)10.6 GW currentPipeline: not disclosed comparably
Microsoft5.5 GW current8.1 GW under development
Alphabet / Google5.2 GW current2.7 GW under development
Meta4.8 GW current9.3 GW under development
OracleCurrent: not in cited top-six13.2 GW under development
“Amazon” is the parent label; the 10.6 GW source figure is specifically AWS. It does not separately quantify Amazon retail or logistics compute. AWS says it added 3.9 GW in 2025 and expects to double total power capacity by end-2027, but it has not published a directly comparable pipeline total. “Not disclosed” is not zero. Across Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle, Otto Analytics estimates a 40–50 GW economically supported or under-development range after adding a broad AWS allowance and controlling for double counting.
GOOGLE’S MEASURED 2025 ELECTRICITY43.6 TWh ≈5.0 GW average
Data centres + offices worldwide; up 37% in one year. It is the actual anchor for Google’s dotted scenario above.
05 / THE RACE TO 2030
Demand is accelerating. Supply has to arrive first.
Electricity can replace fossil fuels in cars, heating, and industry—but only if generation, transmission, substations, and local distribution expand together.
2026–2030 AVERAGE ANNUAL GROWTHIEA FORECAST · NOT A GUARANTEE
Global demand+3.6% / yr
Industry, cooling, EVs, and data centres.
China demand+4.9% / yr
Nearly half of the world’s added demand.
EU demand+2.3% / yr
Buildings and EVs lead; industry recovers slowly.
US demand · central≈2.0% / yr
Includes data centres: ≈420 TWh / 48 GW of total growth, about half from them.
Renewable generation+8.4% / yr
Solar alone adds 600+ TWh / 68+ GW of average output each year globally.
Nuclear generation+2.8% / yr
China leads; U.S. and EU output stays broadly flat.
Gas generation+2.6% / yr
Dispatchable growth alongside renewables and nuclear.
Coal generation−0.9% / yr
Still the largest single fuel source in 2030 under the forecast.
DEMAND: WHO ADDS THE LOAD?
Buildings add the most. Transport grows fastest from a small base.
- Buildings49% of added global demand through 2030; cooling, heat pumps, appliances, services, and data centres.
- Data centresWorld use more than doubles from 415 TWh in 2024 (47.4 GW) toward ≈945 TWh in 2030 (107.9 GW).
- IndustryAccelerates, especially light manufacturing; China remains the largest absolute industrial load.
- TransportMore than 10% of added demand, roughly double its contribution in the prior five years.
IS THE U.S. NUMBER REALLY ONLY 2%?
Yes as an economy-wide central forecast—not as a ceiling.
The IEA’s August 2026 update again forecasts close to 2% growth in 2026, led by data centres, AC, and industry. Its five-year outlook is also near 2%/yr and already assigns about half of the increase to data centres.
But Berkeley Lab’s newer bottom-up data-centre model alone reaches 521–843 TWh in 2030, equivalent to 59–96 GW running continuously. If the high case arrives without offsetting efficiency, retirements, or delayed projects, total U.S. demand growth would land above the IEA central path. Both numbers belong on the page because they answer different questions.
06 / ONE PERSON, ONE YEAR
How much electricity sits behind an average life?
The fairest “citizen” measure divides the entire country’s electricity demand by population—homes plus each person’s share of offices, factories, hospitals, transit, and infrastructure. It excludes gasoline and other fuels burned directly in transportation.
UNITED STATES
ECONOMY-WIDE ELECTRICITY / PERSON
12,700 kWh per year≈ 1,450 average watts
Home-only allocation≈4,360 kWh/person · 500 W
2024 national residential average
16.48¢ per kWh
At the home-only per-person allocation: ≈$719/year. Actual household bills depend on household size, climate, home, utility, and state.
CHINA
ECONOMY-WIDE ELECTRICITY / PERSON
7,100 kWh per year≈ 810 average watts
Home-only allocation≈1,060 kWh/person · 121 W
Representative first-tier residential tariffs
≈7.3–8.8¢ USD per kWh
Equivalent to ¥0.49–0.59/kWh at ¥6.72 per U.S. dollar (Federal Reserve, 21 Aug 2026). China has provincial tiered tariffs, not one national average. Home-only allocation: ≈$77–93/year.
THE SAME ECONOMY-WIDE MEASURE
Three more regions for scale
per person · 2024
per person · 2024 aggregate
per person · 2024
Ember 2024 demand per capita. South America is a demand-and-population-weighted aggregate of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela; overseas territories are not separately available.
WHAT DOES A WATT FEEL LIKE?
Three familiar devices
A device’s watts are its power while running; watts × hours becomes billable energy. These examples are tiny next to an economy-wide average, but AC adds up quickly because it draws much more power for many hours.
65 W
Laptop charger
One hour at full draw = 0.065 kWh.
US ≈1.1¢ · China ≈0.5¢ per hour100 W
LED television
Four hours/day = 146 kWh/year.
US ≈$24 · China ≈$11–13 per year1,000 W
Window AC
Eight hours/day for 90 days = 720 kWh.
US ≈$119 · China ≈$53–63 per seasonA central home AC compressor commonly draws roughly 2–5 kW while running. Cycling, climate, insulation, temperature setpoint, and efficiency determine actual energy; a 1 kW unit does not necessarily run continuously for all eight hours.
Electricity is only part of energy use.
1,450 W vs. 810 W vs. 700 W is the average electrical system behind each U.S., China, and EU resident—not total personal energy, not a live meter reading, and not oil burned in a car.
METHOD + SOURCES
What the numbers mean
Baseline: 2024 actuals wherever comparable; 2023 for EU sector use and 2022 for the complete world end-use split. Every post-2025 data-centre point is marked as a forecast or scenario.
Annual energy → continuous power: TWh ÷ 8.76 = average GW. This is the “always-on equivalent,” not nameplate plant capacity, peak demand, or proof that a load is literally constant.
Comparable sectors: rows share a common order, but source ledgers differ. U.S. customer classes, China economic sectors, and Eurostat final-use sectors cannot be made perfectly identical without discarding information.
Capacity ≠ consumption: operator GW is facility power capacity; Google’s 43.6 TWh / 5.0 GW is measured company electricity. The company chart compares current North American estimates with global pipeline reports, so adjacent bars are not additive.
- 01Ember · Global Electricity Review 2025
2024 world/U.S./China/EU generation, demand, source growth, and per-capita demand.
- 02Ember · Yearly Electricity Data
Source-level TWh, regional aggregates, shares, and year-over-year changes.
- 03IEA · World Energy Statistics and Balances
2022 final electricity consumption and sector shares.
- 04IEA · Electricity 2026 — demand + supply
2026–2030 demand by region, sector drivers, renewable/nuclear/gas growth, and coal decline.
- 05U.S. EIA · Electric Power Annual 2024
Final U.S. generation, retail sector sales and growth, and residential price.
- 06China NEA · 2024 all-society electricity consumption
Primary, secondary, tertiary, and residential TWh and growth.
- 07Eurostat · Electricity and heat statistics
2023 EU final electricity by industry, services, households, transport, and agriculture.
- 08IEA · Energy and AI
2024 data-centre electricity, regional shares, recent growth, and 2030 outlook.
- 09Berkeley Lab · U.S. Data Center Energy Usage 2025 Update
June 2026 U.S. 2030 sensitivity range: 521–843 TWh, equivalent to 59–96 GW average.
- 10Google · 2026 Environmental Report
43.5866 TWh / 5.0 GW-average company electricity in 2025, up 37%; includes data centres and offices.
- 11Axios / Jefferies / Aterio · operator capacity
June 2026 estimated North American power capacity. The chart relabels AWS as parent company Amazon and Google as Alphabet / Google while preserving the source scope.
- 12Otto Analytics · hyperscaler build ledger
July 2026 audit of under-development capacity, contract scope, double-counting, and 40–50 GW working range.
- 13World Bank · Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023
Cloudscene directory counts for data-centre facilities; counts are not a capacity census.
- 14IEA · Global EV Outlook 2025
EV electricity, growth, stock/sales framing, and 2030 grid shares.
- 15China NBS · 2024 statistical communiqué
31.4 million registered new-energy vehicles and annual stock increase.
- 16Beijing tariff + Hunan tariff
Provincial first-tier household price examples.
- 17Federal Reserve · H.10 exchange rates
21 August 2026: ¥6.721 per U.S. dollar, used only to translate the China tariff examples.
- 18Koomey · Worldwide electricity used in data centers
Peer-reviewed 2000 and 2005 world and U.S. electricity estimates, including cooling and auxiliary equipment.
- 19Masanet et al. · Recalibrating global data center energy-use estimates
Methodologically recalibrated world totals of 194 TWh in 2010 and 205 TWh in 2018.
DATA SNAPSHOT: 2024 ACTUALS / 2030 IEA OUTLOOK · COMPILED 28 AUGUST 2026