Generation Impact Calculator
The impact calculator that Energy4All and our member co-ops use is based on the following assumptions and calculations:
| Assumptions | Source | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 kWh of renewable energy saves 0.13kg CO2e compared with using electricity from the grid, or 0.143kg if you add on transmission & distribution (0.013kg per kWh) (rooftop solar PV sites can use the latter number, because they consume most of their electricity onsite) OR 1 kWh of renewable energy saves 0.354 kg CO2 by displacing gas from a CCGT plant Both of these calculations can be justified, one is for directly displacing a fossil fuel and one is comparing with the existing grid energy mix which has a higher % of renewables each year. | UK government's most recent conversion factors: ghg-conversion-factors-2026-condensed-set" CCGT CO2e figure: Carbon capture considerations for combined cycle gas turbine 2015 and UK Parliament Written Questions | ||||||
| 1 kWh of renewable energy could power the UK's most common EV (Tesla Model Y) for 3.86 miles | Energy consumption of full electric vehicles cheatsheet - EV Database 2025 | ||||||
| 1 km of travel by national rail = 0.0354 kg CO2e, and 1 trip from Edinburgh to London is 647 km, so 22.9 kg per trip | UK government's most recent conversion factors: ghg-conversion-factors-2025-condensed-set" 2025 | ||||||
| 1 mature tree absorbs 24 kg CO2e per year, or 240 kg over 10 years | How much CO₂ does a tree absorb per year? | ForTomorrow 2024 | ||||||
| Typical non-electrically heated medium household uses an average 2500 kWh per year | OFGEM average household consumption 2025 | ||||||
| UK as a whole uses 319 TWh per year | DUKES 2024 data Published 2025 |