AI’s Resource Race, Battery Buildout & Climate Risks
Energy, technology, and climate systems are becoming increasingly intertwined, and the latest developments show how physical infrastructure and material supply chains now sit at the center of global competition. From the resource demands of AI to accelerating storage deployment and shifting oil consumption patterns, these stories highlight the forces reshaping power systems, transportation, and climate risk in real time.
🧩 AI’s Physical Limits: Energy, Chips & Critical Minerals
AI’s growth now depends less on code and more on physical resources — electricity, chips, water, land and minerals. Hyperscale data centers are reaching city-scale power needs, with Abu Dhabi planning a 5-GW AI campus equal to five nuclear reactors. Governments are responding with major AI industrial policy, while the U.S.–China race increasingly hinges on semiconductors and materials. Control of energy and supply chains will determine who leads the next wave of AI.
🔋 Grid Battery Storage Surges Worldwide
Grid-scale storage deployment is accelerating rapidly, rising 38% globally year-on-year from January to October. China remains the largest market with 27% growth, while Europe and North America both expanded by 21%. The rest of the world surged 242% from a smaller base, showing how widespread the storage buildout has become. As renewables rise and grids face new strains, batteries are quickly becoming essential infrastructure for flexibility, stability, and peak management.
🚗 China’s EV Boom Drives Major Oil Demand Declines
China’s explosive growth in EVs — not just cars but also buses and heavy trucks — is now having a measurable impact on national oil use. Transport-sector oil consumption is projected to fall around 7.2% in 2025 compared with 2023, a structural shift driven by mass electrification across cities and logistics fleets. With annual sales still climbing, China’s oil demand for transport is now expected to decline every year.
🌊 Tidal Power + Storage + Hydrogen Achieves World First
EMEC has completed a landmark demonstration combining tidal generation, vanadium flow batteries and a 670 kW electrolyser in Orkney. Power from the O2 turbine charged the batteries, supplied the electrolyser, and exported to the grid during high-tide generation. When output dropped at low tide, the batteries kept hydrogen production running. The trial shows how marine renewables paired with storage and electrolysis can deliver reliable clean energy far beyond tidal cycles.
🌍 Climate Tops Global Risk Rankings for 2025
AXA’s 2025 Global Risks Report again ranks climate change as the world’s top risk, marking its fourth consecutive year in first place. Surveyed experts also point to rising geopolitical fragmentation, economic volatility, and emerging AI-related uncertainties as major threats. Extreme weather continues to disrupt crops and displace communities, underscoring how climate and security risks are increasingly interlinked. The global risk landscape today looks dramatically different from five years ago.