Artificial intelligence and electric mobility are exploding energy demand in China
Data from the China Electricity Council shows that electricity consumption in the data services industry and for charging and battery services saw a surge in the first half of 2024, driven by electric technology and vehicles.
According to data cited by China Daily, electricity consumption in data centers, big data and cloud computing increased by 33% between January and June compared with the same period in 2023. In the same period, electricity consumption for Battery charging and replacement services saw a surge of 63.7 percent, Jiang Debin, deputy director of the Council's statistics and data center, told China Daily.
Overall electricity demand in China is expected to increase by about 6.5% this year compared to 2023, according to the Council.
New combined installed capacity of grid-connected wind and solar is expected to reach about 300 million kilowatts, with the share of cumulative installed capacity topping 40% for the first time, the official said.
In 2023, electricity demand in China will increase by 6.4%, driven by the service and industrial sectors, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its Electricity Mid-Year Update report at the beginning Of this month.
China's per capita electricity consumption has already surpassed that of the European Union at the end of 2022 and is expected to grow further, the agency said. “The rapid expansion of PV module and electric vehicle production, and the processing of related materials, will support continued growth in electricity demand in China as the structure of its economy evolves,” the IEA noted.
Despite the continued growth of coal-fired power generation, in the first half of the year China achieved a landmark milestone in the clean energy sector: the increase in hydroelectric, solar and wind energy production caused the share of coal in electricity generation below 60% for the first time ever.
Coal production has continued to increase, as have all other energy sources, thanks to the growing demand for electricity in China. But the increase in coal production has been outpaced by much larger increases in hydroelectric and solar energy production.
China therefore relies on a rather balanced energy mix to meet growing demand, also linked to the ever-increasing diffusion of electric mobility.
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The article Artificial intelligence and electric mobility cause energy demand to explode in China comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/intelligenza-artificiale-e-mobilita-elettrica-fanno-esplodere-la-domanda-di-energia-in-cina/ on Sat, 27 Jul 2024 06:00:03 +0000.