Electrification Could Halve Global Energy Demand, Oxford Professor Says
Electrification Could Cut Global Energy Use in Half
Electricity accounts for just 20% of global energy use, while the fossil-fueled 80% — transport and heating — wastes two-thirds of every input as heat. In this Everything Electric podcast, host Robert Llewellyn talks with Professor Jan Rosenow of Oxford University about how electrifying at scale could halve total global energy demand. They also weigh data centers versus 100 million EVs on the grid, whether lithium is running out, and China's solar surge.
Our current system is astonishingly inefficient, wasting two-thirds of all energy inputs as heat.
- bschwindHN
I only now got around to watching the Technology Connections video on renewable energy, I wish I had seen it sooner. Almost feels like it should be required viewing. I definitely thought there were nastier chemicals/compounds in solar panels and hadn't updated my knowledge on them in decades.
- mikeweiss
I decarbonized my 125 year old home this summer. Cold winters here, using mini split heat pumps now for heat. Previously had oil, and 90 years ago it would have used coal. Love thinking this will be the first winter this house ever had where dirty exhaust wont be going up the chimney to keep it warm.
- darth_avocado
I swapped my hvac for an electric heat pump. My energy usage went down. Because electricity is way too expensive and I’m okay sweating a bit in the summers and wearing jackets indoors in the winters.
- abstractspoon
Unlikely. We'd just use the leftover energy for new things.
- toomuchtodo
Discovered in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-10-31/europe...