{
  "slug": "why-grid-carbon-numbers-disagree-2026",
  "title": "Why Grid Carbon Numbers Disagree",
  "url": "https://solaranalytica.com/why-grid-carbon-numbers-disagree-2026",
  "summary": "A method-first guide to production and consumption accounting, operational and lifecycle factors, imports, storage, fuel-map coverage and revisions, with the exact publication gates used by Solar Analytica.",
  "license": "Free to use with attribution to Solar Analytica (solaranalytica.com). Underlying figures are named to their public sources below.",
  "csv": "https://solaranalytica.com/reports/why-grid-carbon-numbers-disagree-2026/data.csv",
  "datePublished": "2026-08-05",
  "lastReviewed": "2026-08-01",
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "IPCC AR5 Annex III",
      "url": "https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ipcc_wg3_ar5_annex-iii.pdf"
    },
    {
      "title": "Solar Analytica Grid Source Registry",
      "url": "https://solaranalytica.com/data/grid-sources"
    },
    {
      "title": "Our World in Data energy dataset",
      "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/energy-data"
    }
  ],
  "figures": [
    {
      "id": "selected-ipcc-lifecycle-factors",
      "title": "Selected IPCC lifecycle emission factors",
      "unit": "gCO2e/kWh",
      "provenance": {
        "dataSource": "IPCC AR5 Annex III",
        "dataType": "Lifecycle median factor",
        "scope": "Selected electricity technologies",
        "statistic": "Median lifecycle emissions",
        "interval": "Published assessment factor set"
      },
      "caption": "Selected IPCC lifecycle median factors used by the grid-source layer. These are technology factors, not a live grid-intensity reading.",
      "series": [
        {
          "label": "Coal",
          "value": 820
        },
        {
          "label": "Gas",
          "value": 490
        },
        {
          "label": "Biomass",
          "value": 230
        },
        {
          "label": "Utility solar",
          "value": 48
        },
        {
          "label": "Rooftop solar",
          "value": 41
        },
        {
          "label": "Hydro",
          "value": 24
        },
        {
          "label": "Nuclear",
          "value": 12
        },
        {
          "label": "Onshore wind",
          "value": 11
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}