Europe blackouts turn spotlight on power systems - and more top energy stories

Blackouts across Spain and Portugal have led to calls for governments to invest in resilient electricity systems as the energy transition progresses.

Late last month, the countries suffered a power outage that lasted for many hours, grounding planes, halting public transport and forcing hospitals to suspend operations.

The root cause of the incident remains unknown, but Spain lost around 60% of its power generation - and it took 23 hours until its grid was declared back to normal capacity.

Electricity demand is growing due to factors including economic development and the rollout of new technology such as artificial intelligence. At the same time, power generation is becoming more decentralized and variable. The outage highlighted how every area of modern society can be affected if power drops.

What can policy-makers do? At the World Economic Forum, a Power System Transformation initiative is working to enable a shift to a power system that balances supply and demand affordably and sustainably.

Last year was a “year of firsts” for carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

In a new update to its CCUS Projects Database, the agency says in 2024 several first-of-a-kind projects went into the construction phase or started operations in sectors that had not used the technology before. These included the first natural gas power plant with carbon capture and storage reaching a final investment decision in the UK, and, in China, the world’s first project to capture carbon emissions from cement production.

Regions including Indonesia and Kenya also saw their first CCUS projects move to the construction phase, and milestones were also reached in financing the technology.

Many experts say CCUS will have a key role in helping to deliver a low-emissions, secure and affordable energy system. To get there, it is predicted global capacity of the technology needs to expand by more than 100 times in the long term.

The US energy storage industry has made a $100 billion commitment to manufacture and buy US-made batteries. It wants to meet 100% of domestic energy storage demand by 2030.

A start-up in Switzerland is testing solar panels that can be installed between train tracks – and quickly removed to allow railroad maintenance.

A study using data from 26 countries over 15 years has said electric-vehicle adoption is “positively associated” with increased CO2 emissions because countries are still using fossil fuels to generate the electricity that powers them.

Taiwan has supplied a blend of sustainable aviation fuel to refuel planes owned by three domestic carriers.

Kazakhstan has said it will prioritize its national interests over those of OPEC+ when deciding oil production levels.

The UK’s energy secretary has called for countries to cooperate to reduce risk to energy supplies. Ed Miliband was speaking at an energy security summit in London attended by representatives from more than 50 governments.

The European Commission (EC) is set to present a roadmap for how it will phase out imports of fossil fuels from Russia. Imports of liquefied natural gas from the US and gas from Norway are of “strategic importance” to the European Union, EC President Ursula von der Leyen said.

Researchers in Singapore are testing a new type of hydropower that harnesses energy from raindrops.

Indonesia is planning a significant expansion in renewable energy by 2040, including the introduction of 10 gigawatts of nuclear power.

The UK has said it will fit almost all homes constructed by 2027 with solar panels. Housebuilders will be legally required to comply.

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) nuclear fusion project has reached a major milestone on the path to clean energy generation – assembling a powerful magnet that will help confine plasma particles.

Africa’s energy sector faces a fundamental challenge: balancing the three competing priorities of the energy trilemma. With over 600 million people living without electricity and frequent power outages, it is a pressing issue for the continent. The path forward calls for clear strategies, political commitment and targeted investment.

Japan wants to build a 'hydrogen society', which integrates hydrogen across sectors from transportation and steel production to gas and electricity. Its journey holds many lessons for other nations on navigating the complexities of the energy transition.

To learn more about the work of the Centre for Energy and Materials, contact Ella Yutong Lin: ellayutong.lin@weforum.org.