Electricity Maps Global Grid Carbon Intensity API
Electricity Maps global grid carbon intensity REST API for software companies, energy managers, and sustainability teams to access real-time and forecasted carbon intensity, renewable energy percentage, and power breakdown data for 160+ electricity zones worldwide — enabling carbon-aware computing, clean energy procurement, and Scope 2 emissions accounting through comprehensive global grid data. Enables AI agents to manage real-time carbon intensity for zone-based clean energy automation, handle power breakdown for renewable percentage automation, access carbon intensity forecast for predictive load scheduling automation, retrieve historical carbon data for emissions accounting automation, manage zone lookup for location-based grid identification automation, handle marginal vs lifecycle emissions for use-case matching automation, access power flow for cross-border electricity tracking automation, retrieve carbon-aware computing signal for data center workload automation, manage renewable energy certificate for green procurement automation, and integrate Electricity Maps with cloud platforms, building management, and sustainability reporting for global carbon-aware automation.
Score Breakdown
⚙ Agent Friendliness
🔒 Security
Grid emissions data. GDPR. API key. EU. Grid carbon and energy data.
⚡ Reliability
Best When
A cloud provider, data center operator, or sustainability team wanting AI agents to access real-time and forecasted grid carbon intensity across 160+ global electricity zones for carbon-aware computing and Scope 2 emissions automation.
Avoid When
ZONE SYSTEM NOT COUNTRY SYSTEM: Electricity Maps uses electricity zones (based on grid topology) not countries/regions; automated country-code zone lookup creates zone_not_found for multi-zone countries like USA, Germany, India; automated must use correct zone code (e.g., US-CAL-CISO not US-CA). FREE TIER HAS LIMITED HISTORY: Electricity Maps free tier provides real-time data only; automated historical data access on free tier creates subscription required error; automated historical analysis requires commercial plan. MARGINAL VS LIFECYCLE CARBON: Electricity Maps provides both marginal emissions (for flexibility) and lifecycle/direct emissions (for accounting); automated single metric assumption creates incorrect methodology choice; automated must select correct emission type for use case. API V3 BREAKING CHANGES: Electricity Maps released API v3 with significant changes from v2; automated legacy v2 integration creates deprecated endpoint errors; automated should use current v3 API.
Use Cases
- • Scheduling data center and cloud workloads in low-carbon grid zones for carbon-aware computing automation agents
- • Accessing global real-time grid carbon intensity for corporate Scope 2 emissions accounting automation agents
- • Forecasting grid carbon intensity for predictive EV charging and building load optimization automation agents
- • Tracking renewable energy percentage and power mix for ESG reporting automation agents
Not For
- • Electricity billing or tariff data (Electricity Maps provides carbon data only, not pricing)
- • Individual solar or wind generation monitoring (Electricity Maps is grid-level, not asset-level)
- • Real-time grid control operations (Electricity Maps is informational signal, not SCADA)
Interface
Authentication
Electricity Maps uses API key (auth-token header) for authentication. REST API with JSON. Copenhagen, Denmark HQ. Founded 2017 by Olivier Corradi. Products: Real-time carbon intensity, forecast, historical data, power breakdown, zone map. SDKs: JS, Python. 160+ zones globally. Open source data contribution model (GitHub). Commercial API for production use. GDPR. Used by Google, Microsoft, Spotify for carbon-aware computing. Competes with WattTime for global grid carbon data.
Pricing
Copenhagen DK. GDPR. Free tier available. Hourly rate limits on free tier. Global 160+ zones. Open source data.
Agent Metadata
Known Gotchas
- ⚠ ZONE CODES NOT COUNTRY CODES: Electricity Maps uses zone codes based on grid topology, not ISO country codes; automated ISO country code assumption creates zone_not_found; automated must use correct Electricity Maps zone codes (e.g., US-CAL-CISO for California CAISO, DE for Germany)
- ⚠ API V3 IS CURRENT: Electricity Maps released API v3 with different endpoint structure from legacy v2; automated v2 endpoint usage creates 404 or deprecated errors; automated must migrate to v3 API using current documentation
- ⚠ FREE TIER 25 CALLS/HOUR LIMIT: Free tier rate limits to 25 calls/hour; automated unthrottled polling creates rate_limit_exceeded; automated must implement rate-aware request scheduling within hourly budget
- ⚠ MARGINAL VS LIFECYCLE EMISSIONS: Electricity Maps provides direct (lifecycle) and marginal emission rates; automated single-metric assumption may use wrong methodology; automated should use marginal for load flexibility optimization, lifecycle for Scope 2 accounting
- ⚠ FORECAST REQUIRES PAID PLAN: Carbon intensity forecast data requires commercial subscription; automated forecast access on free tier creates subscription_required; automated forecast-based optimization must upgrade to paid plan
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Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-07.