What are Primary and Final Energy?

Primary energy refers to the energy found in natural resources before undergoing any conversion or transformation. It includes raw energy sources such as coal, crude oil, natural gas, sunlight, wind, and geothermal heat. These forms of energy are harnessed directly from the environment and are typically converted for human use, for example into electricity at power plants.

Final energy, on the other hand, is the energy delivered to consumers, ready for use. This includes electricity, natural gas, motor fuels, etc. The conversion process often involves losses, such as heat loss in power plants or inefficiencies during transportation and storage.

Building energy certificates are often based on calculations of primary energy, whereas consumers will often compute their energy requirements, usage and related emissions on the basis of final energy.