Share of primary energy consumption that comes from low-carbon sources
What you should know about this indicator
- Figures are based on gross generation and do not account for cross-border electricity supply.
- Primary energy is measured using the "substitution method" (also called "input-equivalent" primary energy). This method is used for non-fossil sources of electricity (namely renewables and nuclear), and measures the amount of fossil fuels that would be required by thermal power stations to generate the same amount of non-fossil electricity. For example, if a country's nuclear power generated 100 TWh of electricity, and assuming that the efficiency of a standard thermal power plant is 38%, the input-equivalent primary energy for this country would be 100 TWh / 0.38 = 263 TWh = 0.95 EJ. This input-equivalent primary energy takes account of the inefficiencies in energy production from fossil fuels and provides a better approximation of each source's share of energy consumption. You can find more details in the Statistical Review of World Energy's methodology document.
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Citations
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To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:
“Data Page: Share of primary energy consumption that comes from low-carbon sources”, part of the following publication: Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado and Max Roser (2023) - “Energy”. Data adapted from Energy Institute. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/low-carbon-share-energy [online resource]How to cite this data
In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:
Energy Institute - Statistical Review of World Energy (2024) – with major processing by Our World in DataFull citation
Energy Institute - Statistical Review of World Energy (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Share of primary energy consumption that comes from low-carbon sources – Using the substitution method” [dataset]. Energy Institute, “Statistical Review of World Energy” [original data]. Retrieved December 22, 2024 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/low-carbon-share-energy