In the future you will vote for who can keep the lights on

These comments from Brookfield CEO Bruce Flatt caught my attention:

The next 20 years will be an unprecedented period for electricity build-out. The electrification of industrial capacity, automobiles, heating for houses, and other uses is driving unprecedented growth in the demand for electricity. On top of that, the world is adding data centers for Al and cloud computing at a stunning pace.

To put this in perspective, the global installed capacity for electricity is approximately 8,000 gigawatts. To meet expected demand, this installed capacity will need to expand to more than 20,000 gigawatts in the next 20 years. In addition, nearly half of what exists today will need to be retired, as it is very carbon-intensive. Said differently, we need to more than double the current capacity (which was largely built over the past 50 years) while also replacing approximately 50% of what we have. Nothing like this has ever been attempted, but it is essential in order to reach the world’s net-zero goals and drive the Al revolution.

All this needs to happen in a world where it’s never been tougher to build large projects due to costs, financing, liability, regulation and litigiousness. I envision a future where few can take steady electricity demand for granted and elections are regularly won by who can better keep the lights on.

See also: A perfect storm is about to hit global power grids