From TIME · Jan Rosenow · · 3m
The race to build electrostates
Countries that electrify their economies will reshape global power, manufacturing and energy security. The competition is already underway.
In brief
Countries that electrify their economies will reshape global power, manufacturing and energy security. The competition is already underway. Nations are competing to electrify their economies, which will determine future manufacturing hubs, technological leadership and vulnerability to energy shocks. Originally…
When fuel supplies stop, economies shudder
When shipping through the Strait of Hormuz ground to a halt in March, energy importers learned that countries buying fuel cargo by cargo also import every price shock.
Electrification will reshape where power lies
Decisions made today to secure reliable energy will determine where factories are built, which countries manufacture global technologies, and how vulnerable nations remain to disruptions.
The uneven race across 16 economies
New analysis by We Mean Business Coalition reveals how unevenly electrification is progressing. The United States is doubling down on domestic oil and gas, while China is rapidly electrifying.
Europe's ambitious targets face real obstacles
France plans to lift electricity's share of final energy from twenty-seven percent to thirty-eight percent by twenty thirty-five. Canada aims to double electricity supply by twenty fifty. Europe wants to become the world's first electro-continent.
China dominates battery manufacturing
China scores highest on deployment with extensive electric vehicle adoption. It already manufactures more than eighty percent of global battery cells and has doubled electricity's share of final energy consumption since two thousand five.
Europe struggles with cost and grid limits
Brussels wants to double electricity's share of final energy to forty-six percent by twenty forty, but that share has been stuck at around twenty-three percent for a decade.
Where factories go depends on electricity
Businesses deciding where to build factories must weigh electricity costs and grid access alongside skills, suppliers and markets. If electrification remains difficult or expensive, investment may shift to locations offering better conditions.
Developing nations see a different path
Electrification offers developing economies the chance to build modern energy systems without first replicating fossil-fuel infrastructure.Ethiopia shows what is possible with rapid electric vehicle adoption despite electricity reaching only around sixty percent of its population.
Electric economies need far less energy
Burning fuel in engines, boilers and power stations wastes around two-thirds of energy as heat.Electric motors and heat pumps do the same work with a fraction of the input.
COP31 will push for global electrification goal
When governments meet in Antalya, Turkey for COP31 in November, the U.N. climate conference president will push for a global goal to raise electricity's share of final energy from around twenty percent today to thirty-five…
The bottom line
Nations are competing to electrify their economies, which will determine future manufacturing hubs, technological leadership and vulnerability to energy shocks.
