Iceland
ISLIceland uses more electricity per person than any country in the world.
48,424 kWh per person per year, first of 201.
What this grid depends on
Three measures that say more about a country than how much power it makes. Open “what this means” on any of them if the term is new.
Among the cleanest electricity anywhere.
What this means
How much planet-warming gas is released to make one unit of electricity. Two countries can generate exactly the same amount and one of them be ten times dirtier doing it. Lower is better.
Iceland generates almost exactly what it uses, with next to nothing crossing its borders.
What this means
Electricity can be sold across a border like anything else, through high-voltage lines connecting one country's grid to the next. Buying it in means leaning on a neighbour to keep the lights on. Selling it means generating more than the country needs.
Almost everything this grid runs on comes from inside the country.
What this means
How much of what this grid runs on the country can supply itself. Sun, wind and water count fully, because nobody can cut them off; coal, gas and oil only as far as the country digs them up. A high score is not the same as a good grid: mining your own coal scores well, importing uranium scores badly.
Also true of Iceland
Iceland's electricity is cleaner than the world average.
28 grams of CO2e a kilowatt-hour against a world figure of 458 — 94% below.
Iceland generates no gas electricity at all, in a region built on it.
54% of grids in Europe draw more than a tenth of their power from gas.
Iceland gets next to none of its electricity from solar, in a region built on it.
51% of grids in Europe draw more than a tenth of their power from solar.
Iceland’s neighbours
GreenlandGreenland has cleaned up its grid faster than most people realise.
United KingdomWind overtook nuclear on United Kingdom's grid in 2019.
IrelandIreland is among the world's biggest wind and solar producers and still burns fossil fuels for most of its power.
NorwayNorway is second in the world for electricity used per person.
NetherlandsThe Netherlands has taken the carbon out of its electricity fast.
Figures are for 2024, the most recent year reported for Iceland. Generation shares are a percentage of electricity generated, not of energy used. How this is calculated.