This interactive map provides information about the location of power plants around the world, including data about each plant's capacity and fuel type.
A variety of map layers allows students to view the data in various ways.
Teaching Tips
Positives
Students can click on any of the data points on the map to learn more about specific power plants.
Students can explore specific dataset layers by themselves, including coal power plants, hydro power plants, and wind power plants.
Additional Prerequisites
Students and teachers should be aware that the map replicates the continents when the user zooms out too far.
The map defaults to black, but an icon in the right-hand corner allows the user to change the map's color.
Differentiation
Social studies and geography classes could use the map to discuss how different regions produce power and why some regions produce far more power than others.
Science classes could use this resource to discuss global reliance on fossil fuels and what can be done about it.
Other resources on this topic include this resource that shows carbon dioxide emissions by fuel type, this lesson plan on carbon trading, and this Hot Mess video that discusses how the world should pay to fix climate change.
Scientist Notes
This is an interactive map that shows the location and type of power generation plants across the globe. The data is publicly available. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Economics
D2.Eco.15.3-5 Explain the effects of increasing economic interdependence on different groups within participating nations.
Dimension 2: Geography
D2.Geo.3.6-8 Use paper-based and electronic mapping and graphing techniques to represent and analyze spatial patterns of different environmental and cultural characteristics.
D2.Geo.6.9-12 Evaluate the impact of human settlement activities on the environmental and cultural characteristics of specific places and regions.
D2.Geo.9.9-12 Evaluate the influence of long-term climate variability on human migration and settlement patterns, resource use, and land uses at local-to-global scales.
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
4-ESS3-1 Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural resources and that their uses affect the environment.
