Global power use to hit low this year

Comment: A lucid manifestation of deliberate demand destruction.

Related: Peak coal: sooner than you think; A Prince and Four Peaks: Peak Oil, Gas, Coal and Uranium; "Peak Oil" or "Limits to Growth": We are now a little past "peak oil"; Peak Minerals

Energy ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) leading economies will hear Sunday that worldwide electricity use will fall this year for the first time since records began in 1945.

In a report to be presented at a meeting in Rome, the International Energy Agency (IEA) will forecast a 3.5 per cent contraction in global power consumption this year, according to its chief economist, Dr Fatih Birol.

“This shows how deep a recession we are in,” Dr Birol said yesterday. “Oil demand has declined in the past due to oil price shocks and financial crisis, but electricity consumption has never decreased. If you want to measure the health of an economy, you look at the electricity consumption.”


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