Electricity demand expected to jump by more than 75% by 2050 as costs rise, report says
Source: CBS News
May 20, 2025 / 8:58 PM EDT
A dramatic demand for electricity, coupled with a rise in costs, could create massive energy challenges for the United States over the next two decades, a new report released Tuesday by ICF found. The global consulting and technology services company predicted that electricity demand could jump at least 25% in the next five years and as much as 78% by 2050 — findings that far outpace historical trends over the past two decades.
Such growth could have a significant impact on both the reliability and affordability of electricity, the report said. Retail costs are also expected to rise; by 2050, costs passed onto the consumer could double, ICF found. "This is a pivotal moment as rising demand creates urgent challenges for the grid," said Anne Choate, ICF executive vice president for energy, environment and infrastructure in a statement. The U.S. could struggle with increased electricity demand due to rising temperatures and the growing use of emerging technologies, bearing down on an overloaded system.
The report found that in Texas, nearly one-third of the expected increase is attributable to large load sources, such as cryptocurrency mining operations. Data centers, building electrification and semiconductor manufacturing, along with electric vehicles, account for 35% of the projected load through 2040 in 13 mid-Atlantic and Midwest states as well as Washington, D.C. Electric grid operators across the U.S. have been sounding the alarm in advance of elevated summer temperatures after record-breaking heat last year.
The World Meteorological Organization said in its annual State of the Global Climate report that 2024 set a new global temperature record, averaging over 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The National Weather Service released a report last week predicting hotter-than-normal temperatures across the United States from June through August. PJM, one of the country's largest electric grid operators, serving 67 million people in states including North Carolina, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Michigan, warned customers in a news release that the system will be experience a high peak demand this summer.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/electricity-demand-expected-to-jump-75-percent-by-2050-costs-rise-report/
Link to ICF PRESS RELEASE - Electricity Demand Expected to Grow 25% By 2030
Link to ICF REPORT page - Rising current: America’s growing electricity demand
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Last edited Fri May 23, 2025, 01:43 AM - Edit history (2)
Edited: looking for something later, I found statista in archive.org but the latest figures are just through 2023:
2005: 4,055, 2010: 4,125, 2011:4,100, 2015: 4,078, 2016: 4,077, 2017: 4,034, 2018: 4,178, 2019:4,128, 2020: 4,007, 2021: 4,116, 2022: 4,243, 2023: 4,178 -- so note that 2023 is the same as 2018, so we're essentially talking about a flat spot from 2007 thru 2023 (16 years) /EDIT
It was during those flat years where the carbon emissions from electricity generation went down in the U.S., thanks mostly to natural gas replacing a lot of coal (natural gas is filthy, but only half as filthy as coal as far as greenhouse gas emissions per KWH). And thanks to solar and wind. And finally, that electricity generation and consumption was essentially flat was helpful.
Well, now electricity growth is expected to skyrocket as multiple sources say, it will be next to impossible to keep greenhouse gas emissions from growing at least for the next few years if 25% growth in electricity in just 5 years were to occur.
As for air conditioning load, that is expected to skyrocket too. A small rise in average temperature results in an exponential increase in very hot days:
The graph illustrates that a small shift to the right in the average shifts the whole bell curve to the right, and, in this illustration makes hot weather (orange) much more common and extreme hot weather (red) from almost zero probability to considerable probability
Much more at link: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143266574#post1
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Why your air conditioning bill is about to soar - the energy required rises with the SQUARE of the temperature difference
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127174891
taking a tour of the-then under-construction Limerick nuclear power plant here in PA (I think they had just finished one of the cooling towers). The guy who gave us the tour told us that once the plant came online and was operational, the PECO electric bills would drop down to about $3 a month. The average bill at the time was like $25 per month (depending on the season). We laughed (and the laughing was proven to have been correct). 
Thomas Edison, not so much. 
