Sources
Eight electricity sources on one ranked scale. Switch the measure — deaths, CO₂, land, cost, or the priced mortality cost — and watch the order reshuffle: the safest source isn't the cheapest or the lowest-carbon. The cards below can be sorted by death rate or alphabetically.
Deaths per terawatt-hour
Deaths per unit of electricity. Solid is counted (accidents); hatched is modeled (pollution / radiation).
The three lowest — nuclear, wind and solar — sit within each other's uncertainty. This site doesn't rank them apart.
counted · modeled
Log scale: each step right is ten times the last, so the visual gap understates how far apart the extremes really are. The ranking changes with the measure — the safest source is not the cheapest or the lowest-carbon.
The figures as a table
| Source | Low | Central | High | Modeled |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coal | 24.6 | 24.6 | 224 | 95% |
| Oil | 18.4 | 18.4 | 52 | 94% |
| Biomass | 4.6 | 4.6 | 12 | 86% |
| Gas | 2.8 | 2.8 | 8.5 | 90% |
| Hydro | 0.04 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 2% |
| Wind | 0.02 | 0.04 | 0.08 | 25% |
| Nuclear | 0.03 | 0.03 | 0.07 | 70% |
| Solar | 0.01 | 0.02 | 0.06 | 25% |
8 sources
Coal
Electricity from hard coal, lignite, and similar solid fuels.
Oil
Electricity from petroleum liquids, commonly used for peaking or isolated grids.
Gas
Electricity from natural gas turbines and combined-cycle plants.
Biomass
Electricity from burned plant and waste material.
Hydro
Electricity from dams, reservoirs, and flowing water.
Nuclear
Electricity from fission reactors and their fuel cycle.
Wind
Electricity from onshore and offshore wind turbines.
Solar
Electricity from photovoltaic panels and solar thermal plants.