Primary energy consumption from solar and wind power
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.
Sources and processing
This data is based on the following sources
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Citations
How to cite this page
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: Primary energy consumption from solar and wind power”, 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/primary-energy-consumption-from-solar-and-wind [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 Data
Full citation
Energy Institute - Statistical Review of World Energy (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Primary energy consumption from solar and wind power – Using the substitution method” [dataset]. Energy Institute, “Statistical Review of World Energy” [original data]. Retrieved October 5, 2024 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/primary-energy-consumption-from-solar-and-wind