Electricity Maps API
Electricity Maps API provides real-time and historical carbon intensity of electricity (gCO2eq/kWh) and renewable energy percentage by country and region worldwide, enabling sustainability-aware applications.
Score Breakdown
⚙ Agent Friendliness
🔒 Security
HTTPS enforced. API key in header (better than query param). No fine-grained scopes but zone-level access control provides some segmentation. GDPR-compliant as EU-based company. Open source data pipeline allows methodology inspection.
⚡ Reliability
Best When
An agent needs real-time or historical carbon intensity data globally to make sustainability decisions — compute scheduling, carbon accounting, or green infrastructure optimization.
Avoid When
You need raw energy pricing data, need commercial use for free, or require granularity below 5-minute intervals.
Use Cases
- • Green computing: shifting compute workloads to low-carbon grid hours/regions
- • Carbon accounting for cloud and data center emissions
- • Sustainability dashboards showing real-time grid carbon intensity
- • EV charging optimization based on grid cleanliness
- • Corporate carbon footprint reporting and Scope 2 emissions tracking
Not For
- • Raw electricity pricing or market data (not primary focus)
- • Grid frequency or power quality monitoring
- • Applications requiring sub-5-minute granularity
- • Free commercial use (non-commercial free tier only)
Interface
Authentication
API key passed via auth-token header. Free tier available for non-commercial use with application. Commercial use requires paid plan. Keys scoped by zone access (some zones paywalled).
Pricing
Free tier requires application and approval for non-commercial use. Paid tiers unlock historical data, all zones, and SLAs. Pricing not fully public — contact sales for commercial.
Agent Metadata
Known Gotchas
- ⚠ Not all zones have real-time data — some zones use modeled/estimated values; check data source field
- ⚠ Zone codes are country/region codes (DE, FR, US-CAL-CISO) not always intuitive — consult zone list first
- ⚠ Free tier blocks access to historical data entirely — agents needing trends must use paid tier
- ⚠ Carbon intensity values can be null when data is unavailable; agents must handle null gracefully
- ⚠ Data has 5–15 minute delay from real-time; not suitable for millisecond-level decisions
- ⚠ Some zones aggregate multiple grid regions — granularity varies by country
Alternatives
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Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-06.