What is meant by the UK CO2 emission factor for electricity?
The CO2 emission factor for UK electricity supply is basically the “carbon intensity” of a unit of energy. So for example, a unit of energy created totally from fossil fuel will have a much higher carbon emission factor than a unit of energy made from a mixture of fossil fuels, nuclear and renewable energy. In the UK the make up of our energy generating mix changes frequently, but is calculatedly yearly to give an answer for the average CO2 emission factor for the year. The carbon factor we are using has been calculated using the most recent complete datasets available for major power producers (currently for the year 2005) supplying electricity to the national grid. These were sourced from the DTI’s Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) for total kWh electricity supplied and from the UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory (GHGI) for the corresponding total number of tonnes CO2 emitted.
