IEA: "How grids are navigating rising wildfire risk," by Christine Brandstätt.
"Grids near inhabited areas imply higher potential consequences in case of wildfires, albeit also with better access to firefighting capabilities." With nearly 25 million km of electricity lines to be built over the next decade under today’s policy settings, wildfire risks raise important questions about where to build this new infrastructure and how utilities can operate safely + reliably in fire-prone areas.
"Challenges are intensifying as wildfire conditions become more common in some regions and economies grow increasingly reliant on electricity." On the map you can see the most intricate grids are in North America, Europe, India + eastern China/Japan in particular. On the other hand, increasing intensity of red coloration points up the shorter intervals between fires, notably in the Amazon basins + equatorial Africa plus areas south.
"The number + frequency of intense wildfires have more than doubled over the past 2 decades." In 2025, Europe experienced its worst year on record for wildfires – and 2026 may yet surpass it, with overall losses already projected to exceed EUR 3 billion.
"Beyond loss of life + property damage, wildfires can have enduring impacts on local economies, health, biodiversity + climate implications due to smoke, environmental degradation and emissions." A new IEA database tracking around 3,000 energy supply disruptions caused by natural hazards since 2022 registers around 180 reports of wildfire-related power cuts or outages, causing close to 15 million customer disruptions.
"Their causes vary and many result from the de-energisation of grid sections when wildfires are endangering power lines, poles + other network equipment." In the US—where available data on sources of ignition is most complete—the escape of controlled burns, natural causes, arson, + equipment + vehicles are among the leading causes.
"Wildfire conditions can lead to power cuts even before fires start, as operators pre-emptively de-energise sections of the grid when strong winds, heat + dry conditions create an imminent risk." The way the climate is going, I suspect we shall see more of this in accelerating fashion. Especially if the fossil fuel folks continue to extract safely buried carbon.