Global Energy Monitor

Maps

What do the colored dots mean?

The colors indicate the status category:

  • Announced: Projects that have been publicly reported but have not yet moved actively forward by applying for permits or seeking land, material, or financing. Examples: (1) projects are the potential “Phase II” at a location where “Phase I” is currently under development, (2) Projects that are described in long-range company or governmental planning documents.
  • Pre-construction: Projects that are actively moving forward in seeking governmental approvals, land rights, or financing.
  • Construction: Projects where physical construction (i.e. equipment or building, not just a ground-breaking ceremony or early site preparation) has begun.
  • Shelved: Projects where sufficient evidence is found to indicate that a project is no longer moving forward, but there is not enough evidence to declare it definitively cancelled. Projects where construction has been put on hold are also considered “shelved.” A project that shows no activity over a period of 2 years is categorized as “shelved” unless there is evidence to the contrary.
  • Cancelled: In some cases, an owner announces that it has cancelled a project. More often, a project fails to advance and then quietly disappears from company documents. A project that was previously in an active category is moved to “cancelled” if it disappears from company documents, even if no announcement is made. In addition, a plant that shows no activity over a period of 4 years is categorized as “cancelled,” unless there is evidence to the contrary.
  • Operating: The project has been formally commissioned; commercial operation has begun.
  • Mothballed: Units that have been deactivated (not active for more than 1 year) or put into an inactive state but are not retired.
  • Retired: Units that have been permanently decommissioned or converted to another fuel.
How accurate are locations?

Each unit location is marked “exact” or “approximate.” In the case of exact coordinates, locations are either specifically identified on a mapping service such as Google Maps, Open Street Maps, etc., or gathered from company or government documentation. If the location of a unit is not known, Global Energy Monitor identifies the most accurate location possible based on available information.

I’ve zoomed in, but don’t see a power plant. Why?

If a project is still in the pre-operational phases (announced, pre-construction, or construction), there may be no sign of activity. In other cases, only approximate location information could be found. Finally, satellite photos in some geographies are updated infrequently, so recent activity is not shown.

How do I find out if a location is exact or approximate?

Location accuracy improves as plants move from early stages of development toward operation. To find out the coordinates of a location and whether a location is exact or approximate, click on the location dot, select the wiki page, and look under “Project Details.”

Coverage

Does the tracker show all the operating plants in each country?

The objective of the tracker is to provide information on oil and gas-fired power plants in the operational or developmental phases since 2020. Plants that were cancelled or retired before 2020 are not included.

What fuels are covered?

The tracker includes plants running on gas, recaptured/waste gas, and/or liquid fuels (ie: fuel oil, diesel). The tracker includes dual fuel plants (plants that are capable of running on gas and another fuel). The decision regarding which GEM tracker a dual fuel plant is assigned to is based on the primary fuel used in the plant, if known, using publicly available sources.

What about small plants?

The tracker covers units totaling 50 MW or more (20 MW or more in the EU and UK) at a given location. For combined cycle units, this threshold applies to the entire combined cycle set and not to individual components. For internal combustion units, or those units that have multiple identically sized engines, the threshold applies to the total capacity of the set of engines. 

How do you define capacity?

Capacity is measured in gross megawatts, prior to subtracting capacity used for plant operations.

What about plants that are switching from coal to gas?

As of the July 2022 update, the tracker explicitly tracks coal to gas conversions or replacements. The tracker includes coal plants that have announced or are in the process of a switch from coal to gas as a fuel source. These coal-to-gas conversions are added as “announced”, “pre-construction”, or “construction” into the GOGPT until the conversion is completed, when the status is switched to “operating”.

Are LNG gas plants being tracked separately?

The data does include LNG power projects, and these are distinguished by a “Fuel type” of “LNG,” but we do not have a separate list of these at this time.

Can you explain the difference between “units” and “plants”?

The tracker provides separate data on each of the multiple facilities that typically exist at a particular location. Each of these facilities is referred to as a “unit”. The entire collection of units at a given location is referred to as a “plant”.

What additional information do you have?

We have compiled information from different studies and reports on the health effects of gas plants in a GEM.wiki page accessible here.

Carbon Dioxide

How were the carbon dioxide figures derived?

The tracker uses a calculation based on size of plant, regional or country capacity factor, and lifetime emissions factor for a gas-fired power plant. For details, see Estimating Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Gas Plants on GEM.wiki.

Improving the Tracker

What if I find an error or a missing project?

Please fill out an error report here.

Credits

Who built this tool?

The tracker was designed and produced by Global Energy Monitor, a network of researchers seeking to develop collaborative informational resources on fossil fuel impacts and alternatives. 

How do I cite this data?

Please refer to the Download Data page for citation guidance.