Petah Birol: The age of electricity is coming The war in the Middle East led to fundamental changes in the structure of global energy consumption, encouraging the growth of solar, coal and nuclear energy, as well as the adoption of electric vehicles. This is what the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Petah Birol, said at the Singapore International Energy Week conference. "The age of electricity is coming. We will still use oil, we will still use natural gas, including LNG, but the demand for electricity is growing at a very fast rate," the IEA chief said. He noted that the consumption of alternative energy sources increased when diesel prices jumped by about 200% and LNG prices increased by 250% compared to pre-war levels, Petah Birol noted. "I've seen very strong growth in electric vehicle sales over the past eight months," he said, adding that global electric vehicle sales outside of China were up 60 percent over previous trends over the same period due to the conflict. Asan's electricity demand is growing twice as fast as total energy consumption, driven by industrial electrification, air conditioning needs, electric vehicles and data centers, he said. Birol also warned that geopolitical tensions are becoming an increasingly dominant force in global energy markets. "In my entire professional life, I have never, not once, seen the long, dark shadow of geopolitics so dominate the energy sector," he said. "I can only imagine that the role of geopolitics will be much more prominent, meaning that energy security will become even more important than it is today." On Monday at the same conference, Birol said he does not expect energy markets in 2027 to return to where they were before the US-Israeli war with Iran began.

Petah Birol: The age of electricity is coming The war in the Middle East led to fundamental changes in the structure of global energy consumption, encouraging the growth of solar, coal and nuclear energy, as well as the adoption of electric vehicles. This is what the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Petah Birol, said at the Singapore International Energy Week conference. "The age of electricity is coming. We will still use oil, we will still use natural gas, including LNG, but the demand for electricity is growing at a very fast rate," the IEA chief said. He noted that the consumption of alternative energy sources increased when diesel prices jumped by about 200% and LNG prices increased by 250% compared to pre-war levels, Petah Birol noted. "I've seen very strong growth in electric vehicle sales over the past eight months," he said, adding that global electric vehicle sales outside of China were up 60 percent over previous trends over the same period due to the conflict. Asan's electricity demand is growing twice as fast as total energy consumption, driven by industrial electrification, air conditioning needs, electric vehicles and data centers, he said. Birol also warned that geopolitical tensions are becoming an increasingly dominant force in global energy markets. "In my entire professional life, I have never, not once, seen the long, dark shadow of geopolitics so dominate the energy sector," he said. "I can only imagine that the role of geopolitics will be much more prominent, meaning that energy security will become even more important than it is today." On Monday at the same conference, Birol said he does not expect energy markets in 2027 to return to where they were before the US-Israeli war with Iran began.