Energy consumption in Lesotho

The most important measure in the energy balance of Lesotho is the total consumption of

847.30 m kWh

of electric energy per year. Per capita this is an average of 396 kWh.

Lesotho can partly provide itself with self-produced energy. The total production of all electric energy producing facilities is 510 m kWh. That is 60% of the countries own usage. The rest of the needed energy is imported from foreign countries. Along with pure consumptions the production, imports and exports play an important role. Other energy sources such as natural gas or crude oil are also used.

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Energy Balance

Electricity	total	Lesotho per capita	USA per capita
Own consumption	847.30 m kWh	395.52 kWh	11,842.76 kWh
Production	510.00 m kWh	238.07 kWh	12,428.52 kWh
Import	373.00 m kWh	174.12 kWh	220.71 kWh

Carbon footprint

	CO2 emissions in 2018	Lesotho per capita	USA per capita
total	2.57 m t	1.22 t	15.12 t

Development of CO2 emissions from 1990 to 2018 in million tons

Production capacities per energy source

The given production capacities for electric energy have a theoretical value, which could only be obtainable under ideal conditions. They are measuring the generatable amount of energy, that would be reached under permanent and full use of all capacities of all power plants. In practice this isn't possible, because e.g. solar collectors are less efficient unter clouds. Also wind- and water-power plants are not always operating under full load. All these values are only useful in relation to other energy sources or countries.

Energy source	total in Lesotho	percentage in Lesotho	percentage USA	per capita in Lesotho	per capita USA
Fossil fuels	0.00 kWh	0,0 %	70,0 %	0.00 kWh	20,230.06 kWh
Nuclear power	0.00 kWh	0,0 %	9,0 %	0.00 kWh	2,601.01 kWh
Water power	704.30 m kWh	100,0 %	7,0 %	328.77 kWh	2,023.01 kWh
Renewable energy	7.04 m kWh	1,0 %	14,0 %	3.29 kWh	4,046.01 kWh
Total production capacity	704.30 m kWh	-	100,0 %	328.77 kWh	28,900.09 kWh
Actual total production	510.00 m kWh	72.4 %	43.0 %	238.07 kWh	12,428.52 kWh

Note: The sum of each data in this table adds up to 101.00 percent and may not be accurate. Worlddata.info receives this data from the US Office of Public Affairs (CIA) and will not make any presumptuous changes to it.

Usage of renewable energies

Renewable energies include wind, solar, biomass and geothermal energy sources. This means all energy sources that renew themselves within a short time or are permanently available. Energy from hydropower is only partly a renewable energy. This is certainly the case with river or tidal power plants. Otherwise, numerous dams or reservoirs also produce mixed forms, e.g. by pumping water into their reservoirs at night and recovering energy from them during the day when there is an increased demand for electricity. Since it is not possible to clearly determine the amount of generated energy, all energies from hydropower are displayed separately.

In 2018, renewable energies accounted for around 38.4 percent of actual total consumption in Lesotho. The following chart shows the percentage share from 1990 to 2018: