Carbon

How clean each hour is — production-based grid carbon intensity. Cleaner midday when wind and solar peak, dirtier when fossil plants fill the gaps.

How dirty a kilowatt-hour is depends entirely on where and when it is made. Over the 12 months to 14 August 2026, the average carbon intensity ran from about 33 grams of CO₂ per kWh in France to about 551 in Poland; Germany averaged about 305.

These are production-based figures, using standard lifecycle emission factors per fuel — not plant-level measurements.

Daily grid carbon intensity
source ENTSO-E
Carbon by hour of day
source ENTSO-E
Daily grid carbon intensity, gCO₂eq/kWh. Production-based, IPCC AR5 lifecycle factors. Source: ENTSO-E generation mix.
Carbon intensity across the average day. The grid runs cleaner midday when renewables peak and dirtier at the evening fossil ramp. Production-based, IPCC AR5 lifecycle factors.
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