Primer examines how the world’s electrical grids must urgently evolve to meet surging demand from AI, EVs, and heat pumps — projected to double global electricity consumption by 2050.
Key insights:
Spain’s historic blackout illustrated a critical vulnerability: solar panels produce no rotational inertia, leaving grids unstable when supply suddenly drops — synchronous compensators, 100-tonne spinning machines, can restore that stability without fossil fuels.
Startup Veir is developing superconducting cables cooled to near space temperatures, carrying far more power in a fraction of the space of conventional cables.
China’s grid has grown sevenfold since 2000, giving it a significant manufacturing and skills advantage over Western nations whose grids stagnated for three decades.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, solar mini-grids serving ~400 households each are leapfrogging traditional infrastructure, with Mission 300 aiming to electrify 300 million Africans by 2030.