EnergyBoard’s efficiency pages bring together three concepts: primary energy consumption, final energy consumption and energy productivity. They complement one another, but they must be read differently.
Primary consumption: before transformation
Primary consumption measures energy before the transformations required to make it usable. It therefore incorporates part of the losses occurring in the energy system.
Final consumption: energy delivered to users
Final consumption is the energy delivered to households, businesses, transport and other final users. EnergyBoard expresses it in Mtoe to compare large national volumes.
Energy productivity: economic value per unit of energy
Energy productivity is expressed in €/kgoe. A higher value means an economy produces more economic value for the same amount of energy. It is neither an energy price nor a technical efficiency ratio for a machine.
For consumption, a higher value simply means a larger total volume. For productivity, a higher value means more economic output per unit of energy.
Why several indicators are needed
A large economy can consume a great deal of energy while still achieving high energy productivity. Population, climate, industrial structure and economic scale strongly affect totals. Compare the final consumption ranking with energy productivity.