@noheart1Where were you in Asia recently? In that country, were many power blackouts (& for how many hours per day, on average) occuring during the current heatwave conditions?
Air conditioner use is rising greatly around the world- including in Asia, where an increasing number of people in cities can afford air con; & they expect air con is "essential" for their homes, businesses, & factories.
More blackouts ae occuring- the only way to prevent these blackouts (at least for another 10-20 years, IMO, until or
if renewables can provide reliable, cheap baseload power, is for
more coal & gas fired power supply.
Many Asian countries will be importing more thermal coal, so they can have sufficient, cheap, reliable baseload power for the increasing number of air conditioners used there- they don't want blackouts!.
Reuters G. Maguire 10.5.23 said
"Globally, demand for air conditioning is also growing rapidly, and according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) the current global stock of air conditioners is around 2.2 billion units, up from around 1.2 billion in 2010.
Around 416 million air conditioner units are estimated to be in use in the U.S., or more than three per household.
Ironically, the growing use of air conditioners across the world's cities is itself contributing to rising temperatures, as the constant use of air con units that spew unwanted hot air into surrounding streets can push up local temperature readings.
Global volume of air conditioner units
That side effect of widespread air con adoption is set to accelerate the global demand for air conditioner units to more than 5.5 billion by 2050, with more than 542 million in the U.S. alone.
CARBON INTENSITY MATTERS
To feed this higher level of electricity demand over the summer months, power producers must deploy greater quantities of fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal (all my emphases), leading to higher pollution levels than at any other time of year".
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/drive-keep-cool-kicks-off-peak-us-power-emissions-season-maguire-2023-05-10/
(20min delay)