Politicians love to talk about panaceas for economic growth.

Productivity. Investment. Innovation.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: without plentiful, affordable energy, these levers are stuck. In a modern economy, energy isn’t just another input. It’s the foundation. Remove it — or make it unaffordable — and everything else collapses.

There’s an immediate link between incomes and energy:

 

Source: McKinsey / X

 

Take electric vehicles.

The global stock of EVs is set to more than triple by 2030. Electricity demand from EVs alone could rise fourfold.

That’s a structural shift for power grids — but it’s only the beginning.

Next comes AI.

The AI revolution isn’t theoretical anymore. It’s happening in real time. Firms deploying AI are reporting higher revenue, lower costs, and a new category of productivity: synthetic labour. AI is freeing humans to focus on higher-order thinking while extending the reach of their minds.

If AI were a country, its GDP growth would be running at around 2,500% per year.

And the energy footprint?

Global data-centre electricity consumption is set to rise even more asymmetrically than EV demand. Training frontier models and running inference at scale require vast, continuous power.

So if I were a politician, I’d be looking to ensure incentives for cheap, large-scale energy generation are a key plank of any economic programme.

The winners in the new energy world will be those with:

  • A diverse range of generation sources.
  • The ability to scale cheaply.
  • Strategic positioning near emerging data-centre hubs.
  • Access to underserved global regions.
  • Infrastructure built for long-term demand.

These firms won’t just benefit from the energy revolution — they’ll power it.

 

Today’s spotlight: a legacy producer undergoing a decisive pivot

 

Our focus now turns to a company that once anchored itself in fossil fuels but is reshaping its identity.

It is reallocating capital, modernising its asset base, and building a competitive power‑generation platform designed for the world that’s coming…

 

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