Honest projection · estimated
Coal Burned Today (est.)
A projection of how much coal the world has burned since midnight UTC, ticking at the most recent annual total spread evenly across the year. It uses coal consumption (the coal actually used), not the slightly larger production figure. Two-thirds is burned in power stations and China alone accounts for a third of the world total. Real use swings with the seasons and the weather — this is the yearly average made visible. The mines it comes from are one tap away in Grid.
About this number
This is an honest projection, not a census. It is computed by carrying a published figure forward at a known rate over real elapsed time — ≈ 278 tonnes/sec, from IEA Coal 2024 — 8.77 billion tonnes of coal used worldwide in 2024, spread evenly across the year. The source is IEA Coal 2024. The true value is known only to within a margin; this is the running estimate, and we label it as one.