Posting the biggest gains and accounting for 45% of the rise in energy consumption, natural gas emerged as the fuel of choice,as global energy demand grew by 2.3% last year, its fastest pace this decade, driven by a robust global economy and stronger heating and cooling needs in some regions.
Though demand for all fuels increased, with fossil fuels meeting nearly 70% of the growth for the second year running, gas demand growth was especially strong in the United States and China.
In Nigeria, there are calls to exploit opportunities availed the nation through its natural gas deposit for power generation, as against being flared.
Though the Federal Government says the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme is expected unlock and supply 600,000 metric tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas to about six million homes in Nigeria, oil and gas firms operating in the country flared a total of
282.08 billion standard cubic feet of natural gas in 2018, amounting to a potential loss of N234bn.
According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the volume of gas flared last year fell slightly from 287.59 billion scf in 2017.
Solar and wind generation grew at double-digit pace, with solar alone increasing by 31%. Still, that was not fast enough to meet higher electricity demand around the world that also drove up coal use.
As a result, global energy-related CO2 emissions rose by 1.7% to 33 Gigatonnes (Gt) in 2018. Coal use in power generation alone surpassed
10 Gt, accounting for a third of total emissions. Most of that came from a young fleet of coal power plants in developing Asia. The majority of coal-fired generation capacity today is found in Asia, with 12-year-old plants on average, decades short of average lifetimes of around 50 years.
According to the report, electricity continues to position itself as the “fuel” of the future, with global electricity demand growing by 4% in 2018 to more than 23 000 TWh.
This rapid growth is pushing electricity towards a 20% share in total final consumption of energy. Increasing power generation was responsible for half of the growth in primary energy demand.
Renewables were a major contributor to this power generation expansion, accounting for nearly half of electricity demand growth.
China remains the leader in renewables, both for wind and solar, followed by Europe and the United States. Energy intensity improved by 1.3% last year, just half the rate of the period between 2014-2016. This third consecutive year of slowdown was the result of weaker energy efficiency policy implementation and strong demand growth in more energy intensive economies.
