Fwd: Revealed: the secret electricity superusers

0 views

Skip to first unread message

Loretta Lohman

unread,

Oct 31, 2025, 10:41:01 AM (9 days ago) Oct 31

to weather, land interest, select nemo

View in browser

Data centers have caught a lot of heat for their electricity use. But there’s another sector that’s an electricity superuser, yet has largely escaped scrutiny.

Today’s newsletter pulls back the curtain on industrial gas manufacturers’ energy use. Plus, we have a Hurricane Melissa update and look at how the death of US residential solar tax credits is spurring a huge rush to get panels on roofs.

For unlimited access to news about the energy transition, please subscribe to Bloomberg News.

Hidden in plain sight

By Akshat Rathi

The rush to secure electricity has intensified as tech companies look to spend trillions of dollars building data centers. There’s an industry that consumes even more power than many tech giants, and it has largely escaped the same scrutiny: suppliers of industrial gases.

Everyday items like toothpaste and life-saving treatments like MRIs are among the countless parts of modern life that hinge on access to gases such as nitrogen, oxygen and helium. Producing and transporting these gases to industrial facilities and hospitals is a highly energy-intensive process.

Three companies — Linde Plc, Air Liquide SA and Air Products and Chemicals Inc. — control 70% of the $120 billion global market for industrial gases. Their initiatives to rein in electricity use or switch to renewables aren’t enough to rapidly cut carbon emissions, according to a new report from the campaign group Action Speaks Louder.

“The scale of the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions and electricity use is staggering,” said George Harding-Rolls, the group’s head of campaigns and one of the authors of the report.

Linde’s electricity use in 2024 exceeded that of Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Samsung Electronics Co. as well as oil giant TotalEnergies SE, while the power use of Air Liquide and Air Products was comparable to that of Shell Plc. and Microsoft Corp. Yet unlike fossil fuel and tech companies, these industrial gas companies are far from household names because their customers are the world’s largest chemicals, steel and oil companies rather than average consumers.

The industry relies on air-separation units, which use giant compressors to turn air into liquid and then distill it into its many components. These machines are responsible for much of the industry’s electricity demand, and their use alone is responsible for 2% of carbon dioxide emissions in China and the US, the world’s two largest polluters.

These companies also produce energy-intensive process gases, such as hydrogen, carbon monoxide and acetylene, which are used for chemical manufacturing and welding.

If only companies’ direct emissions are taken into consideration, then the leading industrial gas firms have impacts comparable to oil majors and retail giants. These so-called Scope 1 and 2 emissions are generated when the company burns fuels on-site or procures electricity from fossil fuel sources.

The pressure on industrial gas suppliers is growing. Share Action, another green campaign group, published a report in April that concluded these companies “lack robust strategies to transition to renewable energy.” Crucially, with renewables getting cheaper and electricity offering efficiency gains, Share Action argues that these companies are failing to lower their energy cost and thus reducing shareholder returns.

At Linde’s annual general meeting this year, Share Action sent a letter that 22 investors with $2.1 trillion of assets under management signed calling on the company to align its activities with the goals of the Paris Agreement. In 2023, Share Action organized a similar letter for Air Liquide.

Attempts by investors to reduce the emissions of industrial gas companies haven’t always worked. It is why Alix Roy, an analyst with Ecofi and Air Liquide investor, said she has asked the company’s board to respond to Ecofi’s concerns about the company’s plans to reduce emissions from energy use.

“We have tried to escalate as much as possible, but so far it has proven inconclusive,” she said.

— With assistance from Jade Khatib

Read the full story to learn more about the companies’ climate targets.

It's electric

90%

The percent of Air Liquide’s air-separation units that are electric, which can lower energy consumption and improve operational efficiency.

History in the making

"The balance of global electricity is shifting at historic speed."

Rystad Energy

The firm's new analysis projects global power demand will jump 30% over the next decade due to the rise of electric vehicles, data centers and heating and cooling needs. The energy mix will also shift dramatically toward renewables.

Racing the clock for rooftop solar

A worker installs solar panels on the rooftop of a home in California. Photographer: Sandy Huffaker/Bloomberg

By Emma Court

US households have been racing to collect all manner of clean-energy incentives before they’re wound down as part of President Donald Trump’s tax bill.

The latest example: Climate First Bank says it saw record demand for financing of solar panels on homes this month. The bank made more than $60 million in such loans in October, around 10 times the amount it was doing in January, according to Chief Executive Officer Lex Ford.

“It’s a race to get panels on your roof,” he says.

That mirrors a rush by US auto shoppers, who purchased a record number of electric vehicles last quarter ahead of tax credits disappearing.

In addition to solar panels, Climate First Bank, a community bank that launched in 2021 that provides lending for low-carbon projects, also provides financing to Tesla solar roof and Powerwall home battery customers.

The average loan size for all types of home solar projects is just under $50,000. To prepare for growth and meet increased loan demand, holding company Climate First Bancorp. is taking out a $30 million private placement offering arranged by Piper Sandler & Co. and led by EJF Capital, which the bank can then utilize as capital. Other companies in the residential solar industry have struggled in recent months, with lender Solar Mosaic and installer Sunnova Energy International filing for bankruptcy and installer PosiGen reportedly weighing restructuring options.

A satellite view of Melissa’s damage

By Josh Saul, Krishna Karra and Christopher Cannon

New satellite data of Jamaica has revealed devastation for tourist center Montego Bay and much of the Western part of the country.

At least 40% of the buildings and roads in the worst-hit areas on the island were severely damaged, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of satellite data processed by the Earth Observatory of Singapore.

The hurricane caused the most destruction in Jamaica’s western region, which includes the devastated town of Black River and the heavily-damaged tourist center of Montego Bay. Analysis of satellite data shows that Saint James, Westmoreland and Saint Elizabeth parishes were most affected.

“I have never seen anything like this before,” said Kerry-Lee Lynch, head of United Way of Jamaica, who drove from Kingston to Montego Bay on Wednesday past downed trees and power poles. She said the damage from Melissa was worse than the hurricanes that devastated island in years past. “This is more extensive damage than what I saw from Ivan or Beryl. It’s horrific.”

Melissa also tore through the country’s farming heartland, where staples such as yams and tomatoes are grown for the entire country. Bananas are especially vulnerable during storms because the trees they grow on are fragile, said Damien King, executive director of the Caribbean Policy Research Institute in Kingston. “It has devastated agricultural areas, and that is going to manifest itself in terms of shortages and food prices,” he said.

Read the full analysis.

This week on Zero: Linde’s CEO

Linde CEO Sanjiv Lamba Photographer: F. Carter Smith/Bloomberg

Go deeper on how Linde CEO Sanjiv Lamba see electricity demand changing and what the company is doing to transition to clean sources on this week’s episode of Zero with Akshat Rathi. Plus, Lamba and Akshat delve into whether low-carbon hydrogen can ever become big business.

“I absolutely believe clean hydrogen is a great opportunity for industrial decarbonization, broadly, and for us as an industrial gas company,” Lamba said.

Listen now, and subscribe on Apple, Spotify or YouTube to get new episodes of Zero every Thursday.

More from Green

European leaders are likely to show up in force at COP30 despite concerns that some of the world’s biggest emitters will shun the climate conference in Brazil.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is set to attend the world leaders summit on Nov. 6 and 7, and will be joined by President of the European Council Antonio Costa, according to people familiar with the matter. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will announce their attendance in the coming days, the people added.

The plans show that Europe still sees itself as a champion of climate ambition, even though it has failed so far to submit an updated climate pledge to the United Nations, known as a Nationally Determined Contribution. They also contrast with expectations that the leaders from the world’s three biggest emitters — the US, China and India — will skip the summit for the second year in a row.

Read the full story.

Ursula von der Leyen Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

The Green Climate Fund approved record financing, providing $3.26 billion in support of climate projects this year. The fund’s board signed off on 22 new projects in developing nations at its meeting in Songdo, South Korea.

Texas made a $1.1. billion loan to a gas-fired power plant as AI energy demand soars. It’s the largest such project under a state program aimed to shore up supplies after widespread blackouts in 2021.

China and Japan plan to collaborate on typhoon observations and research, as warming temperatures threaten to make the powerful storms more destructive.