Electricity Maps calculates the carbon intensity of electricity consumption to optimize its use at scale

If you’re an electricity geek, you’ve probably already spent a few hours looking at electricity maps and their mesmerizing export flow animations. This open-source data visualization project has been around since 2016. However, companies like Google and Samsung are increasingly relying on this rich dataset to achieve their sustainability goals and empower their users.

Currently, 20 people work at Electricity Maps, and the company has been profitable for several years. However, TechCrunch has learned that it recently raised a $5.4 million (€5 million) funding round from Transition and Revent to raise the bar by investing in the product and business. Electricity Maps is now both a data visualization tool and an enterprise API for data-driven decarbonization – one wouldn’t work without the other.

Founded by Olivier Corradi, a French and Danish entrepreneur and data scientist who previously worked for voice assistant startup Snips, Electricity Maps began with a desire to learn more about the production and consumption of electricity. “There were articles in the press saying that Denmark used 100% renewable energy for one day. So I wondered if it was true and how long it had been going on – how many hours in the day,” Corradi told TechCrunch.

Electricity Maps aggregates real-time data on electricity production in over 50 countries around the world. Although the company uses open data sources, employees and community contributors have had to build dozens of parsers to standardize this data.

Because renewable energy depends on weather conditions (especially wind and solar energy), the structure of energy sources is constantly evolving. This means that the carbon intensity of the energy produced also varies depending on the time of day and prevailing conditions. And, as you might guess, since electricity works a bit like tap water flowing through a vast network of pipes, CO₂ emissions from the electricity you use can vary significantly.

CO calculation₂ emissions can be complicated because there are also many cross-border flows of electricity – some countries produce more electricity than they actually consume, while others have greater electricity needs than production capacity. Electricity Maps has developed its own flow tracking model to understand which power plant supplies the electricity you currently consume.

“We will process all this in our system using what is called a flow tracking algorithm, which allows us to determine where the electricity is coming from depending on where you are. It may be produced locally, but may also come from Germany. But Germany imports from Poland, so it could potentially come from Poland etc. So we need to do some modeling,” Corradi said.

The company also stores historical data and uses machine learning algorithms to provide 24-hour forecasts. Just as weather APIs are a big industry today, electricity forecasting APIs could become essential business tools in the future.

From carbon intensity to load change

The reason why the open source data visualization project is an essential part of the company is because Electricity Maps wants to achieve as much consensus as possible. Calculating life cycle emissions for electricity generation requires peer-reviewed research.

The company provides all its sources of emission factors. This also means that these calculation methods may evolve over time as researchers publish new studies with more accurate results. The community can discuss and report potential changes that will be reflected in the Electricity Maps data.

On the commercial side, being able to know the carbon intensity of the electricity available at a particular place and time could be a kind of superpower.

“With all the targets for renewable energy installations, we will be in a world where the amount of intermittent renewable energy will triple by 2030,” Corradi said.

“The good thing is that this demand is flexible because these will be electric cars and you will be able to change the charging time. This will be AI training and you can choose the time you train these large models,” he added.

Google, one of Electricity Maps’ most important customers, has partnered with a European start-up to calculate the carbon intensity of the electricity powering its data centers.

For some tasks, such as crawling the network or training a new AI model, Google may use Electricity Maps data to change the load. When there is more wind, it’s time to run additional servers. Or when it’s nighttime in the US, Google may move some compute-intensive operations to European data centers.

However, Google customers will also benefit from the company’s partnership with Electricity Maps. Thanks to the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, many companies will soon have to publish carbon accounting reports. Since many companies rely on Google Cloud for their hosting needs, they will need data to calculate Scope 3 emissions. Electricity Maps historical data will make carbon emissions data more accurate.

Samsung, another Electricity Maps client, uses the startup’s data to show users the electricity consumption and carbon footprint of its Samsung devices. In this case, it’s more about educating users.

However, electricity maps are much more than an educational tool. It can act as an information layer to decide whether it’s a good time to turn on millions of electrical devices – or at least whether it’s a good time to have the least impact on the planet.

Why does a profitable company increase? The financial injection aims to expand Electricity Maps’ own impact by adding gas to meet growing demand for smarter climate tools, Corradi says. “The reason we are raising this issue is simply because the amount of renewable energy that is in the system today is starting to become so significant that we are starting to have the ability to activate the flexibility of devices that we have at home or in the industrial sector. “