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Carbon intensity
Source: Electricity Maps
These numbers are according to Electricity Maps. Numbers are represented as grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per kWh (kilowatt-hour) of electricity produced. Lower numbers are best!
- 11: wind
- 12: nuclear
- 24: hydro
- 38: geothermal
- 45: solar
- 230: biomass
- 490: natural gas
- 565: hydro storage
- 565: battery storage
- 650: oil
- 820: coal
Note: this Forbes article estimates the carbon cost of battery storage at 300g CO2-eq/kWh, with a battery lifetime of 400 charge cycles. If the math is correct (I have no idea) but the charge cycle figure is low (it appears to be quite low), then the true carbon cost should be considerably lower than estimated. At 3000 cycles, the carbon cost is 70g CO2-eq/kWh.
Source: Rainwater Harvesting
The below numbers are from the appendix of Rainwater Harvesting For Drylands and Beyond by Brad Lancaster. Measured as pounds of CO2 to generate a kWh of electricity.
Please note that it's impossible for a generation source such as nuclear to be responsible for literally zero climate emissions as nuclear requires expensive uranium mining and shipping; huge amounts of concrete; enormous amounts of water, etc. When in doubt, the Electricity Maps numbers above should be more accurate.
- 2.988: municipal solid waste
- 2.249: coal
- 1.672: oil
- 1.293: average
- 1.135: natural gas
- 0.997: biomass
- 0.067: geothermal
- 0.043: landfill gas
- 0.000: solar thermal / csp
- 0.000: nuclear
- 0.000: hydroelectric
- 0.000: solar pv
- 0.000: wind
- 0.000: micro-hydroelectric
Transportation
The below numbers show the carbon intensity of various travel methods. Source: UK government.
gCO2 per km
- 4.917: Eurostar train
- 29.64: Tram and light rail avg
- 70.9: Long-haul flights (economy)
- 74.2: Short-haul UK flights (economy)
- 78.08: Local London bus
- 85.0: Motorcycle, up to 125cc
- 108.7: Small diesel car
- 111.3: Short-haul UK flights (first/business)
- 113.4: Long-haul flights (economy+)
- 118.4: Domestic UK flights
- 118.48: Local bus (UK, not London)
- 122.9: Small gasoline car
- 132.2: Motorcycle, 1400cc to 1500cc
- 136.4: Medium diesel car
- 139.2: Motorcycle, 500cc to 600cc
- 160.2: Medium gasoline car
- 166.9: Large diesel car
- 205.5: Long-haul flights (business)
- 245.5: Large gasoline car
- 283.5: Long-haul flights (first)