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Average power of the world's total energy use

All the energy the world uses each year since 1980, counting every fuel, expressed as average power in terawatts: the year's energy spread evenly over its hours. From US Energy Information Administration data.

Latest value

20.2TW

World, 2024. Version Oct 2026.

Average power of the world's total energy use (terawatts (average over the year))

45 values from 1980 to 2024.
Show as a table
Average power of the world's total energy use, every value
PeriodValue (TW)Status
19809.4final
19819.3final
19829.3final
19839.4final
19849.8final
198510.1final
198610.3final
198710.7final
198811.0final
198911.3final
199011.3final
199111.3final
199211.2final
199311.3final
199411.5final
199511.8final
199612.1final
199712.1final
199812.2final
199912.4final
200012.8final
200112.9final
200213.2final
200313.7final
200414.4final
200514.9final
200615.4final
200715.8final
200815.9final
200915.8final
201016.8final
201117.3final
201217.6final
201317.9final
201418.0final
201518.0final
201618.2final
201718.4final
201818.8final
201919.1final
202018.2final
202119.2final
202219.4final
202319.8final
202420.2final
Calculated by Environment Dashboard from U.S. Energy Information Administration international energy data (Oct 2026). Changes: world total energy consumption converted from quadrillion Btu to terawatt-hours and divided by the hours in each year to give average power in terawatts. Public domain (work of the US federal government).

Where it comes from

Producer
U.S. Energy Information Administration · International energy data
Version
Oct 2026
File
https://www.eia.gov/opendata/bulk/INTL.zip
Fetched
2026-10-25 (automatically), 24,264,743 bytes
Fingerprint
sha256 367a8d8f93bc3c54f96c755e67ce68783ae92580a5751faa545a265376483216ETag "80951ace360dd1:0" · Last-Modified Mon, 19 Oct 2026 19:55:35 GMT
Copies
Archived copy (Wayback Machine) Our copy of the exact file
Cite the producer
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (Oct 2026).
Producer
U.S. Energy Information Administration · International energy data
Version
Oct 2026
File
https://www.eia.gov/opendata/bulk/manifest.txt
Fetched
2026-10-25 (automatically), 28,398 bytes
Fingerprint
sha256 5ee689ee7a4970723aac66f18a23a93eacc98b14b8ea3af2f5dcefbabdc1cc13ETag "80bcf896464dd1:0" · Last-Modified Sun, 25 Oct 2026 09:38:05 GMT
Copies
No Wayback copy recorded yet.Our copy of the exact file
Cite the producer
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (Oct 2026).

What was done to it

  1. Read INTL.txt from EIA's bulk file INTL.zip. EIA's bulk manifest gives the INTL release as last updated 16 October 2026 and names this zip as its file, so the vintage is 'Oct 2026'. The zip was last modified on the server on Mon, 19 Oct 2026 19:55:35 GMT.

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/energy/eia_international.py · code sha256 c9b0ccd63ddb5193… · inputs 367a8d8f93bc… 5ee689ee7a49…

  2. Kept the annual consumption series in quadrillion Btu: total energy consumption and its five fuels (coal, natural gas, petroleum and other liquids, nuclear, renewables and other), checking each series' name and units. Kept the World and the 220 countries and territories in pipeline/geo/entities.csv, matched by EIA's ISO 3 code (EIA's XKS is Kosovo, KOS, and its SCG, Former Serbia and Montenegro, is Serbia and Montenegro as reported together, SRB_MNE); EIA's regional aggregates are left out, and so are these geographies, which have no entity in the crosswalk: Former Czechoslovakia; Former U.S.S.R.; Former Yugoslavia; Germany, East; Germany, West; Hawaiian Trade Zone; Netherlands Antilles; U.S. Pacific Islands; U.S. Territories; Wake Island.

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/energy/eia_international.py · code sha256 c9b0ccd63ddb5193… · inputs 367a8d8f93bc… 5ee689ee7a49…

  3. Checked EIA's accounting method against its own generation series: for every country other than the United States, the energy content of hydro, wind, solar, geothermal and tide and wave electricity is 3,412 Btu per kilowatt-hour, the captured-energy approach (11,140 country-years checked). Not on that basis in this file: USA: 72 values, e.g. solar 2023 3676, solar 2024 3622 Btu per kWh. World nuclear consumption is 10,379 Btu per kilowatt-hour of nuclear generation in 2024, the heat input of the plants.

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/energy/eia_international.py · code sha256 c9b0ccd63ddb5193… · inputs 367a8d8f93bc… 5ee689ee7a49…

  4. Where EIA's total differs from the sum of its five fuel series, both are published as given. Entities where they differ in this vintage: USA, WLD (World 2024: total minus the sum is -1.442 quad Btu).

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/energy/eia_international.py · code sha256 c9b0ccd63ddb5193… · inputs 367a8d8f93bc… 5ee689ee7a49…

  5. EIA's codes '--', 'NA' and 'ie' (which the file does not define) are null values whose reason quotes the code.

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/energy/eia_international.py · code sha256 c9b0ccd63ddb5193… · inputs 367a8d8f93bc… 5ee689ee7a49…

  6. Unit conversion to average power, for the World only: EIA's total energy consumption in quadrillion Btu times 10^15 times 1,055.05585262 joules per Btu (the International Table Btu, exact; EIA's 3,412.14 Btu per kilowatt-hour, checked above, is the same definition), divided by 3.6 x 10^15 joules per terawatt-hour, then by the hours in that calendar year (8,760, or 8,784 in a leap year), giving terawatts (TWh / h = TW), in exact decimal arithmetic. The result is the constant power that would deliver the same energy over the year.

    Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/energy/eia_international.py · code sha256 c9b0ccd63ddb5193… · inputs 367a8d8f93bc… 5ee689ee7a49…

What it covers

Geography
World
Basis
Primary energy consumption as EIA accounts for it: fossil fuels at their heat content; electricity from hydro, wind, solar, geothermal and tide and wave power at its own energy content, 3,412 Btu per kilowatt-hour (the captured-energy approach; EIA's United States series depart from it for solar and geothermal); nuclear at the heat input of the plants. Not comparable with totals from the Energy Institute or the IEA, which count non-combustible electricity differently. 'Renewables and other' is EIA's own category and can be negative. Average power is EIA's annual total converted to terawatt-hours (1 Btu = 1,055.05585262 joules, the International Table Btu) and divided by the hours in the year.
Unit
terawatts (average over the year) (TW)