Global Energy Supply & Demand
Aggregate view across all tracked energy infrastructure, from extraction and transport to power generation and industrial consumption.
Data: Global Energy Monitor — CC BY 4.0. All figures represent tracked facilities, not exhaustive global totals.
Capacity vs generation: why they tell different stories
Installed capacity (GW) measures what could run at peak. Generation (TWh/yr) measures what actually produced electricity. Lines that cross reveal the capacity factor effect.
How to read: each column's width shows how much capacity a source has. The filled height shows how often it runs (capacity factor). The colored area is actual electricity produced. Solar's column is wide but barely filled (13% CF), producing a small rectangle. Nuclear's column is narrow but almost fully filled (85% CF), producing a taller rectangle that represents more electricity despite far less capacity. Coal's rectangle is the largest area overall: medium width, 56% filled, generating 35% of global electricity.
View underlying data table
Sources: IEA World Energy Outlook 2024, Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy 2024, IRENA Renewable Capacity Statistics 2024. Generation figures are approximate 2023 values. CF = capacity factor (actual output / theoretical maximum). Total global generation ~30,000 TWh/yr.
Primary energy: the full picture beyond electricity
Electricity is only ~20% of final energy consumption. Oil dominates transport, gas heats buildings, coal makes steel. Total primary energy ~600 EJ/yr (~167,000 TWh/yr).
~102 M bpd. Transport, petrochemicals, heating. Not electrifiable at scale.
~8,700 Mt/yr. Power generation + coking coal for steel. Largest CO₂ source.
Largest renewable. Dispatchable, long-lived. Growth constrained by geography.
Fastest growing. Intermittent. ~4,400 TWh wind + ~2,000 TWh solar + ~1,900 TWh other.
Traditional biomass + modern biofuels. Sustainability contested.
Sources: Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy 2024, IEA World Energy Balances 2024. Primary energy uses the substitution method (nuclear/renewables counted at thermal equivalent). EJ = exajoules; 1 EJ = 277.8 TWh.
Energy demand by sector
Total final energy consumption ~440 EJ/yr (~122,000 TWh/yr). How the world actually uses energy, and what we track in each sector.
Steel (~1,900 Mt/yr), cement (~4,100 Mt/yr), chemicals, aluminium. Hardest to decarbonize. CBAM targets this directly.
Data →Heating (gas, oil, district), cooling, lighting, appliances. ~55% of global electricity goes here. Electrification is the decarbonization path.
Data →Road (75%), aviation (12%), maritime (10%). Still >90% oil-dependent. EVs growing but less than 5% of fleet. Maritime disruptions on our maritime page.
Data →Farm machinery, fertilizer production (ammonia from gas), food processing. EUDR-adjacent.
Sources: IEA World Energy Balances 2024, Energy Institute Statistical Review 2024. Final energy excludes transformation losses (e.g., heat lost in power generation).
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