Supporting materials
Methodology
General methodology
Electricity generation data for countries, regions and the world is based on Ember’s Monthly Electricity data. Data is gathered for 88 countries from over 70 sources, including national transmission system operators, statistical agencies and data aggregators such as ENTSO-E.
In some cases, published data was not available for the full reported timeframe; here, we have estimated recent months using Ember’s own generation forecasting model. Regional and world data is largely based on actual reported data, with Ember’s monthly data covering countries representing more than 90% of global electricity demand. Other countries are estimated.
A full methodology on data sources and methods is available here.
Note on electricity source classification
Bioenergy has typically been assumed (by the IPCC, the IEA and many others) to be a renewable energy source, as forest and energy crops can be regrown and replenished, unlike fossil fuels. It is included in many governmental climate targets, including EU renewable energy legislation.
Ember therefore includes it in “renewables” to allow easy comparison with legislated targets. However, we recognise that the IPCC-reported lifecycle carbon intensity of bioenergy is significantly higher than other renewables and nuclear, and this is incorporated into our power sector emissions estimate.
More information about Ember’s classification of electricity sources can be found in the full methodology for Ember’s Monthly Electricity Data under “Fuel Types”.
Emissions
References to CO2 emissions in this report are using CO2-equivalent emissions, which include other greenhouse gases such as methane (CH4). Power sector emissions are based on the methodology from Ember’s Electricity Data, which can be found here.
Acknowledgement
Contributors
Nicolas Fulghum, Richard Black, Dave Jones, Raul Miranda, Phil MacDonald, Rini Sucahyo, Rashmi Mishra, Hannah Broadbent, Chelsea Bruce-Lockhart, Reynaldo Dizon, Sachin Sreejith, Claire Kaelin, Ardhi Arsala Rahmani, Pawel Czyzak, Muyi Yang, Neshwin Rodrigues, Ali Candlin and Tito Das.
Cover photo
Aerial shot of wind, solar and battery storage in China – hrui / Getty images
Media coverage
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