Electricity Maps, a platform that provides real-time emissions data, has created a visualization to show how the carbon intensity of the Dutch electricity grid changed hour by hour throughout 2024. Each column represents a day, each row an hour, with colors showing how high or low the grid’s carbon intensity was at that time. To build it, Electricity Maps combined national energy certificate records with grid operations data to calculate carbon intensity at an hourly level. The result shows that emissions can vary dramatically from hour to hour and makes clear why hourly data—unlike the annual averages most companies still rely on to calculate electricity-related emissions—offers more accurate carbon accounting and can better inform smarter climate action.
Visualizing Hourly Carbon Intensity of the Grid
