EU emission factors
The European Commission publishes verified emissions and allocations for all installations included in the EU emissions trading scheme (EU-ETS). This dataset is updated on an annual basis and is available here. This dataset includes emissions and allocations for all EU thermal power plants.
ENTSO-E publishes generation per unit for the majority of European transmission system operators (TSO).
Extracting latest available data, the ENTSO-E power plants were matched to the corresponding installations in the EU-ETS dataset. The carbon intensity of the power plant can then be calculated. Power plant carbon intensities are then averaged per mode to get regional emission factors at the zone level.
For zones for which generation per unit data is not available, the emission factors used will be the average of all available factors. These factors will be the European average emission factors.
The methodology to compute the EU direct emission factors is detailed in this following notebook: EU_emission_factors.ipynb. For 2023 we changed how the calculations are done slightly and used this notebook: EU_emission_factors_2023.ipynb.
All the datasets used in the process are available and are listed below:
- ENTSO-E generation per unit (csv)
- EU-ETS allocations and verified emissions (csv)
- Power plants mapped manually (csv)
- Heat allocation model (spreadsheet). Follows the same methodology as in this mapping of generation and emissions data for Germany
The figure below shows the difference between the European average lifecycle emission factors and the default lifecycle emission factors in 2021.
Figure 1: Comparison of European lifecycle emission factors and default lifecycle factors for 2021
Direct biomass emissions are generally accounted as 0 (See Article 38 in the EU-ETS regulation). For the EU, we will continue using the IPCC 2014 emission factor (230 gCO2eq/kWh) for lifecycle emissions.
The coal upstream emissions are generated from the data that was aggregated for Oberschelp, Christopher, et al. "Global emission hotspots of coal power generation." Nature Sustainability 2.2 (2019): 113-121.
They provide a comprehensive dataset for worldwide upstream coal emissions.
Upstream gas emissions are computed as the difference between lifecycle and direct emissions from the IPCC (2014) Fifth Assessment Report. They account for 120 gCO2eq/kWh.
As in the IPCC (2014) Fifth Assessment Report, lifecycle and upstream emissions are equivalent for Geothermal.
Upstream hydro emissions were taken from the UNECE 2022 report "Integrated Life-cycle Assessment of Electricity Sources"
Upstream nuclear emissions were taken from the UNECE 2022 report "Integrated Life-cycle Assessment of Electricity Sources"
Upstream oil emissions are computed as the difference between lifecycle emissions from the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology and direct emissions as computed here. They account for 244 gCO2eq/kWh.
Solar upstream emissions were computed using the INCER-ACV tool. Developed by the French Agency for Ecological Transition, it allows to compute lifecycle (and thus upstream) emission factors for photovoltaic solar based on average solar irradiance of a zone.
Upstream unknown emissions are computed as the difference between lifecycle and direct emissions as computed here. They account for 125 gCO2eq/kWh.
Upstream wind emissions were taken from the UNECE 2022 report "Integrated Life-cycle Assessment of Electricity Sources". The report splits out specific emission factors for onshore and offshore wind.
A simple weighted average was realised using WindEurope "Wind energy in Europe, 2021 Statistics and the outlook for 2022-2026" Wind Europe Proceedings (2021)'s data on total installed capacity of both onshore and offshore wind power.
The methodology for computing direct emission factors was highly influenced by the work of Unnewehr, Jan Frederick, et al. "Open-data based carbon emission intensity signals for electricity generation in European countries–top down vs. bottom up approach." Cleaner Energy Systems 3 (2022): 100018.
- Mirko Schäfer for his extensive help on the methodology
- Thomas Gibon for helping Electricity Maps identify some of these key data sources and for validating the methodology
- Dave Jones and Ember for reviewing the methodology