In this guide, we outline different countries’ renewable energy as a % of electricity production, and average electricity prices.
This reason for putting this guide together is to see if there is some kind of link between renewable energy use for electricity, and electricity prices in different countries.
Note: the energy sources used for electricity is just one factor that might impact prices – there are many general factors that can cause electricity prices to increase and decrease. The same can be said for electricity prices on a country and State specific level
Summary – Electricity Prices In Countries That Use The Most & Least Renewable Energy
What we see below is that higher renewables energy share does not always correlate with higher electricity prices, and vice versa for lower renewable energy shares.
There are a number of countries with very low renewable energy shares that have very low electricity prices though.
This could be due to using cheaper fossil fuel plants that don’t have newer air pollution and carbon emission reduction technology fitted i.e. they could be making use of cheap, dirtier fossil fuel energy (but, this is purely speculative without doing an individual analysis of each country).
In the below figures:
Electricity Prices = average electricity price as of 2019, in terms of US Dollars/cents, per kWh (kilowatt hour) of electricity.
Prices are obtained from globalpetrolprices.com, but also wikipedia where otherwise stated.
Additional prices can also be seen at wikipedia.org
Renewable Energy % = renewables as a % of total electricity generation in a given year (most of the stats are from 2016). %’s are obtained from wikipedia.org
As a benchmark, note that the average electricity price globally in March 2019 was 0.14 U.S. Dollar [14 US cents] per kWh (globalpetrolprices.com)
Also note that we have listed every country, but some of the most notable ones.
%’s and prices for other countries can always be viewed by following through the links in the resources list.
Electricity Prices In Countries That Use High %’s Of Renewable Energy For Electricity (50% Or Higher)
Iceland – 100%, 16 (US) cents
Norway – 97.2%, 14 cents
New Zealand – 83.9%, 21 cents
Brazil – 80.4%, 18 cents
Austria – 74.3%, 22 cents
Nepal – 65.5%, 8 cents
Canada – 65%, 11 cents
Denmark – 60.5%, 34 cents
Switzerland – 59.8%, 21 cents
Sweden – 57.1%, 20 cents
Electricity Prices In Countries That Use Medium %’s Of Renewable Energy For Electricity (20% To 49%)
Finland – 44.2%, 19 cents
Spain – 38.1%, 25 cents
Italy – 37.3%, 26 cents
Turkey – 32.9%, 10 cents
Pakistan – 32.7%, 5 cents
Germany – 29%, 35 cents
United Kingdom – 27.9%,
Ireland – 24.7%, 23 cents
China – 24.5%, 8 cents
Argentina – 21.5%, 9 cents
Electricity Prices In Countries That Use Low %’s Of Renewable Energy For Electricity (20% Or Lower)
France – 17.5%, 19 cents
Russia – 16.9%, 6 cents
India – 16.88%, 8 cents
Belgium – 16.6%, 32 cents
Mexico – 15.3%, 8 cents
Japan – 15%, 29 cents
United States – 14.7%, 14 cents
Australia – 14.5%, 25 cents
Poland – 13.7%, 17 cents
Hungary – 10.1%, 13 cents
Egypt – 8.2%, 3 cents
Ukraine – 5.6%, 5 cents
South Korea – 2.8%, 10 cents
United Arab Emirates – 8 cents
It’s Also Worth Knowing The Electricity Prices & Renewable Energy % In A Country By The Individual States …
Like in the United States for example – where %’s and prices differ from State to State.
Knowing both the National and State electricity sector stats paints a broader and more accurate picture.
Sources
1. https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/Democratic-Republic-of-the-Congo/electricity_prices/
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_pricing
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electricity_production_from_renewable_sources
4. https://www.bettermeetsreality.com/comparison-by-us-state-renewable-energy-of-electricity-production-vs-average-electricity-price-vs-co2-emissions-vs-air-pollution/
5. https://www.bettermeetsreality.com/factors-that-impact-electricity-prices-what-causes-them-to-increase-decrease/
6. https://www.bettermeetsreality.com/causes-of-high-or-increased-electricity-prices-in-different-countries-states-around-the-world-case-studies-examples/
