Energy consumption in Latvia

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

6.71 billion kWh

of electric energy per year. Per capita this is an average of 3,425 kWh.

Latvia can partly provide itself with self-produced energy. The total production of all electric energy producing facilities is 5 bn kWh. That is 80% 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	Latvia per capita	Compared to Europe per capita
Own consumption	6.71 bn kWh	3,425.30 kWh	5,412.25 kWh
Production	5.34 bn kWh	2,726.15 kWh	5,831.12 kWh
Import	4.83 bn kWh	2,463.85 kWh	731.24 kWh
Export	3.80 bn kWh	1,936.68 kWh	719.23 kWh

Carbon footprint

	Total	Latvia per capita	Compared to Europe per capita
CO2 emissions in 2014	6.97 m t	3.56 t	5.40 t

Development of CO2 emissions from 1992 to 2014 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 Latvia	percentage in Latvia	percentage in Europe	per capita in Latvia	per capita in Europe
Fossil fuels	10.05 bn kWh	39,1 %	48,9 %	5,130.21 kWh	7,994.86 kWh
Nuclear power	0.00 kWh	0,0 %	7,2 %	0.00 kWh	1,185.87 kWh
Water power	13.91 bn kWh	54,1 %	23,4 %	7,098.33 kWh	3,829.91 kWh
Renewable energy	1.72 bn kWh	6,7 %	16,2 %	879.09 kWh	2,655.34 kWh
Other energy sources	25.71 m kWh	0,1 %	4,3 %	13.12 kWh	696.17 kWh
Total production capacity	25.71 bn kWh	100,0 %	100,0 %	13,120.75 kWh	16,362.15 kWh

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 2015, renewable energies accounted for around 34.4 percent of actual total consumption .inCountry().. The following chart shows the percentage share from 1990 to 2015: