Energy & Infrastructure · 2031–2036
What Will Power Our Cities and Businesses in 2035?
Rising electricity demand puts grids, storage and flexibility in focus. Explore the numbers, an illustrative saving and three paths toward 2035.
3 min read · Published 2026-09-20 · Watch the full episode ↓
The question
What will power our cities and businesses in 2035? Electric transport, cooling, factories and data centres will need electricity at the right place and time. Building more generation is part of the answer. Connecting it and making it useful will shape the result.
The FXNumbers base case is a more coordinated power system: generation, grids, storage and flexible consumption develop together. For customers, progress should mean dependable electricity at a manageable total cost.
Three numbers to start with
3.6% — The IEA's forecast average annual growth in global electricity demand for 2026–2030, following 3% growth in 2025. Industry, electric vehicles, cooling and data centres all contribute.
43% — The share of global electricity generated by renewables and nuclear combined in 2025, according to the IEA's Global Energy Review 2026. Renewables alone supplied 34%. These are generation shares, not installed capacity.
Over 2,500 GW — Renewable, storage and large electricity-user projects waiting in grid connection queues worldwide, reported in Electricity 2026. This is a pipeline of projects, not a promise that all will be built.
Connections change the outcome
A solar farm, factory or charging depot needs a workable connection. Substations, cables, equipment and skilled crews can determine when an investment starts delivering value.
The useful question therefore moves beyond how much capacity has been announced: how much is connected, available and serving customers?
Storage adds another distinction. In an illustrative battery system, 100 MW describes its maximum power output; 400 MWh of usable energy would support four hours at that output, before operational adjustments. Power and duration tell different parts of the story.
Flexible demand can help too. Charging a fleet or scheduling suitable production tasks at a different hour may reduce pressure on the system without reducing the work completed.
Where data centres fit
The IEA's updated 2026 outlook projects data centre electricity use rising from 485 TWh in 2025 to about 950 TWh in 2030, around 3% of global electricity demand by then. This covers all data centres, not just AI.
Their location matters: a modest global share can still create a substantial need for local infrastructure. The opportunity is to plan new demand alongside the resources and connections that will serve it.
What flexibility could be worth
Imagine a business shifting 1,000 kWh of daily consumption from a €0.20/kWh period to a €0.10/kWh period. The illustrative saving is €100 a day, or €25,000 across 250 operating days.
Those tariffs are assumptions. Equipment, contracts and operating constraints reduce the net benefit. The example shows why timing can matter alongside the amount of electricity consumed.
Three paths toward 2031–2036
Uneven transition: generation expands faster than connections and equipment. Some regions advance quickly; others face delays where a missing link holds projects back.
The FXNumbers base case: grids, generation, storage and demand are planned together. More businesses automate suitable consumption around availability and price.
Accelerated coordination: faster construction and connections combine with storage and digital controls, supporting wider electrification of transport and industry.
These are conditional scenarios. Completed projects, service reliability and customer costs will show which path is emerging.
What to watch
Five signals provide a practical dashboard: electricity demand, low-emissions generation, completed grid connections, usable storage and total customer cost.
The next five years may be defined by connections; the next ten by a more responsive system. Which improvement would matter most to you: lower bills, greater reliability or cleaner power?
Sources
International Energy Agency — Electricity 2026: demand outlook.
International Energy Agency — Global Energy Review 2026: electricity supply.
International Energy Agency — Electricity 2026: grids and connection queues.
International Energy Agency — Key Questions on Energy and AI, 2026 update.
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