Energy Carbon Intensity

Definition

An emission intensity (also carbon intensity or C.I.) is the emission rate of a given pollutant relative to the intensity of a specific activity, or an industrial production process; for example grams of carbon dioxide released per megajoule of energy produced, or the ratio of greenhouse gas emissions produced to gross domestic product (GDP). Emission intensities are used to derive estimates of air pollutant or greenhouse gas emissions based on the amount of fuel combusted, the number of animals in animal husbandry, on industrial production levels, distances traveled or similar activity data. Emission intensities may also be used to compare the environmental impact of different fuels or activities. In some case the related terms emission factor and carbon intensity are used interchangeably. The jargon used can be different, for different fields/industrial sectors; normally the term "carbon" excludes other pollutants, such as particulate emissions. One commonly used figure is carbon intensity per kilowatt-hour (CIPK), which is used to compare emissions from different sources of electrical power.
Wikipedia (2023-02-16)

→ Carbon Intensity of Electricity = number of grams of carbon dioxide to produce one unit of electricity a kilowatt per hour (kW/hour)

Sources with real-time grid data

Electricity Maps

Electricity Maps Visualization

https://app.electricitymaps.com/

updated hourly, 50+ countries

Visualization is open source: https://github.com/electricitymaps/electricitymaps-contrib

CO2signal API

https://www.co2signal.com/

API to get the most recent carbon intensity numbers for any country on Electricity Maps.
Free for individual users and developers.

API documentation: https://docs.co2signal.com

WattTime

https://www.watttime.org/explorer/#4/51.34/10.45

Live global coverage map

Carbon Intensity API (UK only)

https://www.carbonintensity.org.uk/

Sources with aggregated data

Agorameter

https://www.agora-energiewende.de/en/service/recent-electricity-data/

All data is usually entered within 48 hours.

Ember

Electricity Data Explorer

https://ember-climate.org/data/data-tools/data-explorer/

Many datasets including yearly CO2 intensity data per country.
Can also be used to compare countries or regions.

Our World in Data

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/carbon-intensity-electricity

Chart and Map based on the data from Ember.

Visualizations

Animation: Carbon intensity of electricity consumption of the last 25 days (Twitter)

ElectricityMap Visualisations in R | by Grant Chalmers | The Kernel | Medium

Energy Carbon Intensity-1687858260740.jpeg

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/grant-chalmers_rstats-ggplot2-tidyverse-activity-7079284552275279872-ElfA

Usages

Carbon-Aware Computing

Values per Energy Source

Carbon emissions of different electricity supply technologies