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.
Move from the concept to the data
EnergyBoard now covers more datasets: each guide links to the most useful Eurostat pages, including the new housing, heating and building indicators.