>The reason behind the slow growth in electricity demand is the high price dictated by environmental politics.
That seems like a pretty dubious claim. For one thing, how often do you (or any home or business owner) not turn stuff on because of how much it might cost them? For another, the largest driver in my understanding is growing energy efficiency (e.g. LED's use fractions of the old incandescent bulbs)
Energy efficiency has been a big factor, but an even bigger one is the energy-intensive heavy industry fleeing from the developed world to china and other places where power is cheap and plenty. Countries like Germany that kept their industry at home face extraorbitant prices. I think they pay close to 30+cents/kWh.
Residential power is more expensive (per kWh) than industrial power, which might also be subsidised depending on industry — likely the same for most western countries. Half of the residential price is a good approximation for Germany.
That seems like a pretty dubious claim. For one thing, how often do you (or any home or business owner) not turn stuff on because of how much it might cost them? For another, the largest driver in my understanding is growing energy efficiency (e.g. LED's use fractions of the old incandescent bulbs)