From scarcity to abundance? The year ahead in energy.

Technical Review Middle East reports that the world is moving from a time of energy scarcity to energy abundance, according to a report published by research and intelligence experts Rystad Energy.

The company says capacity additions in fossil fuels as well as renewables will outpace increases in demand during 2025. It predicts that China’s oil consumption growth has peaked, while 90 percent of the electricity consumption growth will come from renewables.

This could also make 2025 the breakout year for energy storage systems, according to founder Jarand Rystad. “Of the expected 1,350 terawatt hours (TWh) of growth in global power demand, consumption by data centres – primarily fuelled by AI – is likely to grow by 13 percent in 2025. This equals about 3 percent of total electricity consumption growth, similar to the growth from the 20 million new electric vehicles (EVs) expected.”

The article states that lower carbon energy markets are set to grow, boosted by climate plans emerging from the COP29 summit, although funding and subsidies are uncertain and green energy stocks are under pressure.