The carbon treasure map allows a comparison of the avoided emissions of additional clean energy projects in various grid regions around the world. To produce the estimates, we combine three open data sources to calculate avoided emissions according to the GHG Protocol’s Guidelines for Quantifying GHG Reductions from Grid-Connected Electricity Projects (this is real/consequential impact, not Corporate Standard Scope 2). This version of the Carbon Treasure Map is based on data from 2023.

1. Renewable Energy Profiles, Typical: Hourly historically AMY production data profiles from Renewables.ninja, for a location within each grid region.
2. Marginal Operating Emissions Rate (MOER): Hourly historical emissions rates (describing how the existing grid responds to changes in load or new renewable generation) for each grid region as available free from https://gridemissionsdata.io/. WattTime's MOER methodology is described here.
3. Marginal Build Emissions Rate (MBER): Hourly historical emissions rates (describing how new grid assets will be built in the long run due to changes in load or new renewable generation) for each grid region as available free from https://www.gem.wiki/MBERs. MBER methodology is described here.
4. Combined Marginal Emissions Rate (CMER): Hourly historical emissions rates  (describing the full system-wide and long-run/stabilized grid response to changes in load or new renewable generation, including both operating and build effects). CMER combines the MOER and MBER rates at a 50/50 ratio. 
5. To get the annual effective avoided emissions rate for each technology, we normalize the renewable energy profile, then multiply that by the hourly CMER timeseries. The annual mean of this renewable-profile-weighted CMER is the overall avoided emissions rate shown on the map.