By Siyi Liu and Florence Tan
SINGAPORE, Oct 27 (Reuters) – The concentration of a small number of countries in clean energy supply chains is an emerging challenge for Southeast Asian countries, International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said on Tuesday, amid fast-rising power demand in the region.
“The age of electricity is coming. We will still use oil, still use natural gas including LNG, but electricity demand is growing very strongly,” Birol told delegates at the Singapore International Energy Week conference.
Birol did not identify the countries dominating clean energy supplies, but China is by far the largest global supplier of renewable energy equipment, from solar panels to wind turbines, electric vehicles and batteries.
Electricity demand in ASEAN countries is rising at twice the pace of overall energy consumption, driven by industrial electrification, air-conditioning needs, electric vehicles and data centres, he said.
Southeast Asian nations have emerged as key drivers of China’s clean-energy export boom, splashing out over $20 billion on Chinese-made clean-tech products so far in 2026, according to energy think tank Ember.
Birol also warned that geopolitical tensions have become an increasingly dominant force in global energy markets.
“In my professional life, I have never, never ever seen the dark and long shadow of geopolitics dominating the energy sector in such a way,” he said. “I can only imagine that the role of geopolitics will be much more pronounced, and this means energy security is going to become even more important than it is today.”
Birol said the Middle East war has triggered fundamental changes in global energy consumption patterns, spurring growth in solar, coal and nuclear power as well as electric vehicle adoption.
“I see in the last eight months very strong growth of electric car sales,” he said, adding that global electric vehicle sales outside China had risen 60% above previous trends over the period because of the conflict.
Consumption of alternative energy sources has increased as diesel prices have jumped about 200% and LNG prices have risen 250% from pre-war levels, according to Birol.
He said on Monday at the same conference that he does not expect energy markets in 2027 to return to where they were before the US-Israeli war on Iran began.
(Reporting by Siyi Liu and Florence Tan; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Lincoln Feast.)
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