Carbon intensity of electricity in Canada, Mexico, and the USA

2021-05-02. I created a map of the carbon intensity of the power grid for Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Electrification of sectors of the economy such as transportation or industry can significantly decrease CO₂ emissions in regions of North America that produce electricity from low carbon footprint sources.

Canada

The carbon intensity of electricity consumption in Canada’s provinces and territories for year 2019 is found on Figure 4 of “The road ahead: encouraging the production and purchase of zero-emission vehicles in Canada“. 

United States of America

The power sector carbon index, created by Carnegie Mellon University’s Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, provides time series of carbon intensity of the power sector for the fifty states of the USA from 2001 to 2020. The values for year 2020 are plotted in the map above.

México

The Comisión Federal de Electricidad is the single power utility tasked with generating, transmitting, and distributing electricity in Mexico’s 31 states and Mexico City. Because of this national integration of the power sector in Mexico, a single value of carbon intensity may be provided for the entire Mexican federation. I obtained this value from the Climate Transparency Report 2020. On page 9 of the individual country profiles, we find the following values.

• G20 average: 449 g CO₂ / kWh
• Mexico:  439 g CO₂ / kWh
• USA: 383 g CO₂ / kWh
• Canada: 137 g CO₂ / kWh