【英國人均發電量掉回 1970 年代 🔌】
英國 2025 年的人均發電量大約四千度出頭，比 1970 年代還低。2003 年前後的高點超過 6,700 度，之後一路往下，二十年掉了快四成。
發電量不等於用電量，這是這張圖最容易被誤讀的地方。英國是電力淨進口國：2024 年淨進口 334 億度，2025 年光是從法國那幾條海底電纜就淨進口 219 億度、創下紀錄，挪威 90 億度，比利時 20 億度。過去十年平均大約有 5% 的供電來自進口，近年比例更高。實際用掉的電，比這條線顯示的多。
第二件事是，這條線去年其實往上。英國 2025 年的總發電量增加 2.6% 到 2,936 億度，推力來自需求回升和出口增加。長期趨勢往下，但最後一年不是繼續下滑。
下降的原因也分成兩種，意義完全不同。一種是能源效率：照明、家電和建築保溫這二十年省下來的電很可觀，這部分是好事。另一種是重工業外移：鋁、鋼這類高耗電產業離開之後，用電需求跟著走，製造業的產出也一起走了。
把兩者混在一起看，就會把效率提升和產業流失算成同一回事。值得追問的是那四成裡面，兩者各佔多少。
資料來源：Ember 與 Our World in Data 的發電量資料、英國能源統計摘要（圖片來自 @puckrin）
UK Electricity Per Person Is Back at 1970s Levels
The United Kingdom generated a little over four thousand kilowatt hours of electricity per person in 2025, less than it did in the 1970s. The peak around 2003 was above 6,700, and the fall since then is close to 40%.
Generation is not consumption, and that is the easiest way to misread this chart. Britain is a net importer of electricity. Net imports were 33.4 terawatt hours in 2024, and in 2025 the French interconnectors alone delivered a record 21.9 terawatt hours, with Norway at 9.0 and Belgium at 2.0. Over the past decade roughly 5% of annual supply has come from imports, and recent years have run higher. More electricity is used than this line shows.
Second, the line rose last year. Total UK generation increased 2.6% to 293.6 terawatt hours in 2025, driven by higher demand and higher exports. The long trend is down, but the final year is not.
The decline also has two causes that mean opposite things. One is efficiency. Lighting, appliances and insulation have cut a great deal of demand over twenty years, and that is a gain. The other is heavy industry leaving. When aluminium and steel production goes, its electricity demand goes with it, and so does the manufacturing output.
Treating those as one thing turns an efficiency gain and an industrial loss into the same number. The question worth asking is how that 40% splits between them.
Source: Ember and Our World in Data generation figures, with the UK Digest of Energy Statistics (Image: @puckrin)