Ireland
6.969 TWh 2024
~22% of national metered electricity
Measured
01 · The year in electricity
2025 was another record year for world electricity — 31,734 TWh, up 2.66%.
Clean sources supplied 42.6% of it — a record share, and still less than half.
02 · Trends
Wind and solar now generate more electricity than hydro — 5,491 TWh against 4,432 TWh.
Global generation by fuel, 2000–2025: output more than doubled, to 31,734 TWh. In 2025 wind and solar supplied all of the net growth while coal went backwards — but the fossil block they must replace still towers over them.
Source: Ember Electricity Data Explorer (2026-09-21 vintage).Method ↗
03 · Sources of generation
In 2025, coal generated more electricity than wind and solar combined — 10,490 TWh against 5,491 TWh.
Each band is a fuel’s measured flow into total world generation — 31,734 TWh in 2025. Wind and solar have grown 171-fold since 2000, and solar edged past wind for the first time; drag the slider back to see how thin those threads began.
Drag to re-derive the flows for any year, 2000–2025, from the same measured dataset.
Source: Ember Electricity Data Explorer (2026-09-21 vintage) · measured.Method
04 · Country comparison
China generated 10,578 TWh of electricity in 2025 — more than twice the United States’ 4,520 TWh.
The same twenty grids, ranked three ways: sheer scale, per-person supply, or how much already runs clean. Switch the measure — the pecking order flips.
Source: Ember Electricity Data Explorer (2026-09-21 vintage); population Our World in Data — Energy Data (population from UN World Population Prospects).Method
05 · Data centers — 估算
No one has ever measured global data-center electricity — every figure here is an 估算.
Three modeling teams estimate data-center electricity on three different scopes: the IEA models the whole world, LBNL and EPRI model only the United States. The chart keeps them in separate groups — and EPRI's range includes crypto mining, which the IEA excludes.
National snapshots — measured and estimated
Germany
17 TWh ~2022
≈3% of national electricity
Estimated
Singapore
3.71 TWh 2020
≈7% of national electricity
Estimated
Vendor context — not demand:Equinix 8.87 TWh · Digital Realty 11.65 TWh (2024) — TOTAL company energy, not data-center-only; not demand anchors.
Source: Based on IEA data (Key Questions on Energy and AI, Apr 2026 update) · LBNL · EPRI · CSO Ireland · Bitkom via Clean Energy Wire · MTI Singapore. Method
Method notes — plain words
- IEA (global). Modeled from device shipments and market data — no measured global total exists. Excludes crypto mining. 415 TWh in 2024 (≈1.5% of world electricity) → 485 TWh in 2025 → 950 TWh in the 2030 base case (≈3%).
- LBNL (United States). Chip and IT-equipment shipment model. 2024: 192 TWh. 2030 reference scenario 649 TWh with a 521–843 TWh uncertainty band (11.8% of US electricity).
- EPRI (United States). 2026 Powering Intelligence outlook. 2030 range 380–790 TWh (9–17% of US electricity) — its scope includes small data centers and crypto mining, so it cannot be compared with the IEA series.
- Ireland (measured). CSO official metered-electricity statistics: 6,969 GWh in 2024 (~22% of national metered electricity), data centers identified post-hoc from metered demand.
- Germany (~2022, estimated). Industry estimate via Bitkom: 17 TWh, ≈3% of national electricity.
- Singapore (2020, estimated). MTI's official 7% share; the TWh figure is derived by applying that share to Ember's Singapore 2020 total (53.07 TWh) → 3.71 TWh. Not an official TWh figure.
- Vendor totals. Equinix 8.87 TWh and Digital Realty 11.65 TWh are total company energy (all fuels), calendar 2024 — not data-center-only. Never demand anchors, never ranked.
- What we cut. The UK anchor (source URL unverifiable), S&P/451 figures (source broken), and Big Tech company totals (boundaries not comparable) were removed rather than decorated with badges.
06 · Methodology
Every number on this page can be traced to its source.
Six datasets, two build scripts, one rulebook. Here is what each figure is made of, how sure we are of it — and what we refused to publish.
How confidence is marked
- measured
- Solid rendering. Reported or compiled by an authority — Ember's national-statistics aggregates, Ireland's metered data.
- estimated
- Dashed + translucent + badged ESTIMATED. Derived from partial data, e.g. Singapore's TWh from the official 7% share × Ember's total.
- modeled
- Same dashed/translucent/badge encoding on charts — a modeled figure is never shown as solid "measured" data. Built from models where no measured figure exists (IEA/LBNL/EPRI data-center demand).
Data sources
| Dataset | Source | License | Tag |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hero figures | Ember — Yearly Electricity Data | CC BY 4.0 | measured |
| Global fuel mix · 2000–2025 | Ember — Yearly Electricity Data | CC BY 4.0 | measured |
| Country mix · top 20 · 2015–2025 | Ember — Yearly Electricity Data | CC BY 4.0 | measured |
| Flow sankey · 2025 | Ember — Yearly Electricity Data | CC BY 4.0 | measured |
| Population (per-capita denominator) | Our World in Data / UN-WPP | CC BY 4.0 | measured |
| Data-center demand | IEA ·LBNL ·EPRI ·CSO (Ireland) ·Bitkom ·MTI (Singapore) ·Equinix ·Digital Realty | Mixed — IEA data is Non-CC (see note) | modeled (per-anchor tags vary) |
Ember data built by scripts/fetch-ember.mjs from the long-format CSV release; population patched byscripts/fetch-population.mjs. Data pulled 2026-09-21.
How each module was built
- Hero
- Ember's World Total Generation row, 2025; YoY from Ember's own YoY column, cross-checked against (latest − prev)/prev.
- Trends
- Annual global generation by fuel, 2000–2025. "Clean" = Ember's aggregate (renewables + nuclear); there is no separate Oil category — oil sits inside "Other Fossil".
- Sankey
- 2025 fuels → total generation → total demand. Demand equals generation by construction (world net imports = 0); Ember "demand" is supply-side accounting, not end-use consumption. No sector split — no honest open source exists for it.
- Country
- Top 20 countries by 2025 generation (ranking pinned at build time); fuel mix 2015–2025; per-capita = generation ÷ OWID/UN-WPP mid-year population.
- Data centers
- No measured global total exists — global anchors are modeled, never "measured". IEA excludes crypto mining; EPRIincludes mining and small data centers — never compared side by side without the scope notes. Vendor figures (Equinix, Digital Realty) are total company energy, boundary-labeled, never demand anchors.
Units
All energy figures are in terawatt-hours (TWh). Per-capita figures use kWh/person per IEA convention — the sole exemption, recorded here — and TWh and kWh/person never share a chart, title, or lede.
IEA licensing note
IEA "free product" data is Non-CC periea.org/terms — free to download, not openly licensed. This site quotes IEA only as small conclusion figures (≤5 numerical points: the 415 / 485 / 950 TWh anchors and the 1.5% / 3% shares), each attributed"Based on IEA data" and presented graphically. No downloadable IEA datasets; nothing a reader can reverse-engineer back into the underlying data.
What we cut and why
- UK DSIT 2.3 TWh — source URL unpinnable in the research notes; audit-flagged Tier-2. Cut until the original source is pinned.
- S&P Global / 451 Research 860→1587 TWh — single-vendor modeled series with incompatible scope; adds nothing beyond the IEA anchors.
- "2024 mining ≈160 TWh" — year-misaligned; IEA treats mining separately from its data-center series anyway.
- Google / Microsoft / Apple single-company figures— company self-reports are not comparable demand anchors.
- IEA country shares (45/25/15) — cut from on-page figures; quote-footprint discipline under the Non-CC license.
- Singapore TWh — kept, not cut, but flagged: the 7% share is official MTI (2020); the 3.71 TWh is derived (7% × Ember's Singapore 2020 total of 53.07 TWh). Never presented as an official figure.
Source: src/data/provenance.json (2026-09-21) · full dictionary: src/data/DATA_DICTIONARY.md