El Salvador
SLVHydro overtook geothermal on El Salvador's grid in 2024.
Today hydro supplies 30% and geothermal 21%.
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.
Cleaner than 8 in 10 grids worldwide.
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.
El Salvador generates a surplus and sells it on.
What this means
The share of what this country generates that is sold abroad rather than used at home. A country can only export if it produces more than it needs, which usually means plentiful hydro, nuclear or wind.
Also true of El Salvador
El Salvador has taken the carbon out of its electricity fast.
308 grams of CO2e a kilowatt-hour in 2015, 139 in 2025.
El Salvador has cleaned up its grid faster than most people realise.
Low-carbon electricity went from 58% to 87% in 10 years.
El Salvador has about as many people as Norway, and 28 times less electricity to share between them.
6.4 million people against 5.6 million, but 1,015 kWh per person a year against 28,598.
El Salvador’s neighbours
HondurasHonduras has cleaned up its grid faster than most people realise.
GuatemalaBioenergy overtook coal on Guatemala's grid in 2020.
BelizeBelize is second in the world for bioenergy.
NicaraguaNicaragua has cleaned up its grid faster than most people realise.
Costa RicaCosta Rica generates no oil electricity at all, in a region built on it.
Figures are for 2025, the most recent year reported for El Salvador. Generation shares are a percentage of electricity generated, not of energy used. How this is calculated.