LONDON – October 27, 2026 -- China holds the highest electrification deployment score among 16 countries assessed in a new index, while the US risks losing momentum and several large European economies have yet to turn policy into delivery.
The Electrification Competitiveness Index, developed by the We Mean Business Coalition with support from RMI, measures electrification delivery on the ground alongside the enabling conditions needed for further progress. Those factors indicate how ready each economy is for businesses to electrify operations. Across most countries, policy and other enablers run ahead of actual deployment.
China, France and Spain form the only group with strong deployment and strong enablers
China's lead rests on coordinated grid investment, industrial policy and incentives. France and Spain score well on grid performance and clean power shares. In all three, electricity prices are more competitive against gas than in most other assessed economies.
UK industry pays about five times more for electricity than gas per unit of energy
The UK, Germany, India, Italy and Poland fall into the "potential for take-off" group, where enablers outrank deployment. The UK shows the largest gap between policy and delivery. Germany faces a grid connection backlog of hundreds of gigawatts.
US interconnection queues hold more than 2TW against 1.3TW of existing capacity
The US sits in the "risk of stalling" group with Australia, Brazil, Ethiopia and South Korea. These countries have deployment at or above the halfway mark but enablers below the median. In the US, federal policy reversals and grid bottlenecks threaten momentum. Generation and storage projects exceeding 2TW are waiting in interconnection queues, against roughly 1.3TW of generating capacity in operation.
Indonesia, the Philippines and South Africa invest under 0.4% of GDP in grids
These three countries score below the halfway mark on both deployment and enablers. Clean power supplies 18% of generation in Indonesia and South Africa and 23% in the Philippines. Grid investment in all three is below 0.4% of GDP, compared with a 0.65% average across the sample.
The index also covers Australia, Brazil, Ethiopia and South Korea. The coalition says electrification will be a key focus at COP31.