Demand for housing may be down, but demand for electricity is headed up — both in the U.S. and around the world. Global demand is set to grow at about 4% per year through 2027, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency. 

That’s like adding more than the equivalent of Japan to global electricity consumption in each of the next three years. 

In some rich countries, electricity consumption has remained relatively flat or declined in the last 15 years. But in 2024, that changed — and in the next three years, the IEA expects many advanced economies, including the U.S., to see power demand grow, driven in part by data centers and electric vehicles. 

But emerging economies will be responsible for 85% of the growth in global demand in the next three years, according to the report.

“We’re talking about orders of magnitude differences in developing countries, and so most of the energy investment and infrastructure is going to be in Asia, Africa, Middle East,” said Todd Moss, executive director of the think tank Energy for Growth Hub.

China, Southeast Asia and South Asia are some of the major drivers of demand growth, said Gautam Jain, a researcher with Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

“All these countries are obviously growing, and the middle class is growing, and these are countries that are actually much more exposed to climate change,” he said.

In countries around the equator, including India and Indonesia, he said, days above 95 degrees Fahrenheit are more frequent. “So there’s a need for more air conditioning.”

To meet additional demand for electricity, countries are turning to renewables and nuclear energy, said Eren Çam, an electricity analyst at the IEA.

“Basically stabilizing global emissions growth,” he said.

He forecasts that CO2 emissions associated with electricity generation will roughly plateau in the next three years.